Hattie: A Woman's Mission to Burma

Hattie, the biography of Harriet Phinney (1861-1938), is the story of one woman’s search for a role more meaningful than the domestic life prescribed for her by her family and the society of her day. Hattie’s quest for such a role and the particular form it took exemplified the aspirations of many young women of that time.

Growing up in Rochester, New York, Hattie tired of her "do-nothing life" and in 1884 became a teacher at the newly established Spelman Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.The following year, she received appointment as a Baptist missionary to Burma,arriving in Rangoon at the age of 24 to begin her initiation into the demanding work of the mission. Eventually joining with Ruth Whitaker Ranney, Hattie found her life’s work as an educator of native women and founder of the Burman Woman’s Bible School.

In excerpts from letters to her family over 56 years, Hattie’s own words vividly portray the challenges and rewards of missionary life in Burma during the historic years of the British Raj.