author
Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew
1845–1917
A writer and reformer with a global outlook, she used books and investigative reporting to challenge the exploitation of women under imperial systems. Her work, often written with Katharine C. Bushnell, combines moral urgency with firsthand inquiry.
1 Audiobook
Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers
by Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew, Katharine C. (Katharine Caroline) Bushnell
About the author
Born in 1845 and dying in 1917, Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew was an American author best remembered for socially engaged nonfiction. Surviving bibliographic records and public-domain texts link her most clearly to two major collaborative books with Katharine C. Bushnell: The Queen's Daughters in India (1899) and Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers (1907).
Those books focused on the treatment of women in British-ruled India and Hong Kong, especially the abuses tied to state regulation of prostitution. Rather than writing at a distance, Andrew and Bushnell presented themselves as investigators as well as advocates, gathering evidence to expose systems they believed were unjust and harmful.
Andrew's writing belongs to a tradition of reform literature that tried to move readers from sympathy to action. Even now, her work stands out for its clear sense of purpose: to shine a light on hidden suffering and to argue that public policy should be judged by its effect on the most vulnerable.