Enlisting the Family in Missions to Korea

Abstract

Studies of the role of family in the modern mission movement have greatly expanded our understanding of the multiplicity of dynamics at play in missions work. In particular, the contributions of wives, whether formally appointed as missionaries or not, have been made increasingly visible. The near exclusive definition of family as conjugal unit of married couples and their children, however, has left invisible the contributions of broader family to the work of missions. This paper considers two individuals, John Thomas Underwood and Emma Jane Harpster, and the kinship networks they represent. Though neither were missionaries, each was drawn by family into the work of missions in Korea. Following recent analyses of the importance of broader kinship networks in the development of the middle classes in nineteenth-century Europe and North America, this paper suggests such networks were also of significance in the modern mission movement.