Abstract:
The story of the Quakers in Ramallah is one thread of the complex tapestry of Arab-American relations in the 19th and early 20th centuries. American Quakers first traveled to the region in 1869 to establish schools and medical outreach. By the early twentieth century, Quakers were running half a dozen day schools with more than 250 students and spots in their boarding schools were highly coveted. The evolution of these Quaker institutions illuminates some of the complex dynamics between missionaries and their intended converts. Using memoirs and archival sources, including private letters and diaries, I argue that the Quaker mission is best understood not as a colonial project, but a space for interaction in which Palestinians and Americans exerted varying levels of control over resources.
