Missionary letters functioned as public propaganda, not private correspondence

Evidence

Letter writing took on a publicist character, since letters were never written as private correspondence between individual women but rather to be shared in open forums and published in magazines. The exchange and reading of letters became focal points of the northern women’s meetings, as exemplified in the report from Maine women who “found these letters from the schools invaluable as helps to our women in conducting their meetings.” — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 490

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Echoes the grafted network-building theme of my trees-as-infrastructure piece: correspondence as root-graft infrastructure connecting northern funders to southern mission field.
• XREF: connects to: Colonial administrators’ letters functioned as public self-presentation, not private correspondence — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1466; Anti-African supremacist rhetoric was amplified through missionary channels — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists:…, 40; Missionary justifications often masked purely intellectual interest in the exotic — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists…, 122 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Colonial administrators’ letters functioned as public self-presentation, not private correspondence #corroborates (0.85) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1466
• Colonial private letters prove empire’s privileges, not inner souls #complicates (0.80) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1514
• Anti-African supremacist rhetoric was amplified through missionary channels #expands (0.75) — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists, 40
• Propaganda originated as a Jesuit missionary term in the 1600s #expands (0.75) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 738
• Missionary justifications often masked purely intellectual interest in the exotic #expands (0.72) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 122