Reviews
Review by: Emily Burgoyne, librarian, Angus Library and Archives, Regent's Park College, University of Oxford - June 2, 2025
"This remarkable journal reveals the inner and outer life of Charlotte White Rowe, from the moment she began her 1816 voyage to India as the first American woman missionary to be appointed by the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, to the life she had established four years later while living in Digah as a missionary, translator, teacher, wife, mother, and stepmother. In this short time, Charlotte's life changed immeasurably and the courage and determination with which she adapted to and faced these changes is extraordinary to behold. We witness Charlotte's spiritual struggle and her unassailable faith and belief in God. Charlotte Rowe survived against the many obstacles placed in her way, as an intelligent and resourceful woman of the nineteenth century--a woman of conviction, a woman who prevails."
Review by: Catherine B. Allen, former president, Women's Department of the Baptist World Alliance - June 2, 2025
"Charlotte White Rowe was deliberately erased from Christian history until Reid Trulson discovered her. For seven years he diligently searched for her diary and letters which had been known to exist seventy-five years earlier. Like Charlotte, the documents had disappeared until Trulson brought them to light. This diary is both a spiritual manual and a survival manual for a person called by God to minister, but who is opposed by religious authorities and by all nature. It is set in the early 1800s but is just as true today. This faithful transcription and annotation give us the workings of God within a gifted woman--a poet, a scholar, a convenient wife, a mother, a teacher, and a victor over disease. Christians in ministry owe Reid Trulson deep thanks for the resulting presentation--in this volume and in its companion biography."
Review by: Samaresh Nayak, executive director, India Mission Coordination Committee, Balasore, India - June 2, 2025
"The missionary undertakings of Charlotte White Rowe who arrived in Bengal and worked at Digah in Patna, Bihar, decades before previously known American Baptist missionaries in India are a new eye-opening for mission history. The passionate and scholarly work done by Reid Trulson in recognizing Charlotte Rowe's work is a fresh view of the contribution of women in mission and of American Baptist mission history in India. I had the privilege to remotely coordinate the 2019 field visit of Trulson and his team in their search for reminiscences of Charlotte Rowe in Kolkata (Calcutta), Serampore, and Digah, in Patna. I am extremely delighted to see his extensive work on her life and ministry. This is a wonderful contribution to Indian church history which will ignite further exploration of her ministry in India."
Review by: Peter De Vries, voluntary consultant, Carey Library and Research Centre, Serampore College, India - June 2, 2025
"Charlotte White Rowe's journal is an important contribution to early Serampore Mission studies. It is very moving to read and fills in so many details about Serampore that were not known. Practical things, like the use of river water for drinking with lime added for purification, the meals, clothing, and sights, as well as details of different personalities, William Carey's work in the garden, his advice to her and his ideas about mixed race marriage. That besides the very moving story of Charlotte's acquaintance and marriage to Joshua Rowe. The journal is an absolute jewel in many respects. Trulson has done very well to transcribe this so accurately and provide so much background information about Charlotte's family and American relations. This excellent work has brought her journal to life."