[This is one of the finalists in the 2026 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done.
asserted
voting → write → reader
I’ll be posting about one of these a week for several months.
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I → post → months
When you’ve read them all, I’ll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which ones you liked]
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you → read → ones
In October 1819, my grandmother’s grandfather’s grandfather, Hiram Bingham I, stood with his wife, Sybil, and his friends outside Park Street Church in Boston and bade farewell to family before venturing into the unknown.
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grandfather → stand → unknown
They would spend the next five months on a cramped ship sailing to a foreign land of strange people, full of “destitution, degradation, and barbarism.”
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They → spend → destitution
They did not know if they would ever return to America.
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they → know → America
Unlike others who voyaged out to sea, they were not whalers, nor merchants trying to make a quick profit.
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they → voyage → profit
Instead, their goal was far more ambitious: to uplift an entire nation out of heathenry to civilization.
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goal → uplift → civilization
Or as Hiram wrote, to “most effectually and most extensively promote the Redeemer’s cause with the means that are put into our hands”.
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that → write → hands
I first came across Hiram’s memoir, A Residence of Twenty-One Years in the Sandwich Islands, on my honeymoon to the Hawaiian Islands last summer.
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I → come → Islands
I had vague knowledge of a family connection to the area, and decided to do some research into it.
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I → have → it
As I started reading, I had a growing sense of deja vu as I recognized my own patterns of thinking in Hiram’s words.
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I → start → words
Today’s Effective Altruists sincerely want to do the most good possible, and often focus on international development as a means of improving lives.
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Altruists → want → lives
However, there is another group who fits that description equally well: 19th-century missionaries.
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who → be → description
Hiram and his colleagues believed that Heaven and Hell were not metaphorical, and that doing the most good meant saving the most souls from eternal torment.
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doing → believe → torment
And what, they asked themselves, was the most effective means towards accomplishing this goal?
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they → ask → goal
Spreading the Gospel to those who had never heard it.
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who → spread → it
All of humanity required salvation, and those who lived in foreign lands mattered just as much as those who lived nearby.
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who → require → those
As a missionary destination, the Hawaiian Islands (then known as the Sandwich Islands), had several compelling advantages.
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Islands → know → advantages
First, the islands were very neglected, being recently discovered.
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islands → discover → ?
While not as important as China, Egypt/Palestine, or India, they still held a sizable population.
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they → hold → population
And unlike those places, there was little competition from other missionaries or pre-existing organized religions, making them much more tractable for conversion.
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them → be → conversion
The mission to Hawaii would prove notably cost-effective compared to other missions1.
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mission → prove → missions1
Basically all that was needed was a ship, a printing press, and missionaries to teach the Bible.
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that → need → Bible
In other words, if the EA Forum existed in the early 19th century, I could easily imagine a post arguing that bringing the Gospel to the Sandwich Islands is a promising cause area.
uncertain
bringing → exist → Islands
So, with the benefit of 200 years of hindsight, what can Effective Altruists and other aspiring do-gooders today learn from the previous wave of people who wanted to save the world?
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who → aspire → world
To find out, I read Hiram’s memoir, A Residence of Twenty-One Years in the Sandwich Islands.
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I → find → Islands
Published in 1847, it’s not a particularly engaging book2, but as a historical document, it’s a fascinating account of the effort of seven young missionary couples and their Hawaiian friends to do the most good possible by bringing Christianity, literacy, Western civilization, and Puritan social mores to a nation of 130,000 souls.
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it → publish → souls
In many ways, the islands of Hawaii are a paradise on Earth, but to the missionaries who knew them as the Sandwich Islands, they were a savage place.
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they → know → Islands
These islanders, after all, had killed Captain Cook just 40 years ago3.
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islanders → kill → Cook
From 1782 to 1810, the nation was ravaged by war.
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nation → ravage → war
King Kamehameha I, adopting Western military technology such as gunpowder, forcefully unified the islands into a single kingdom and suppressed potential rivals.
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I → adopt → rivals
A young boy, Opukaha’ia, was left an orphan by Kamehameha’s warriors, who killed his father, mother, and infant brother.
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who → leave → father
With nothing left for him in Hawaii, he joined the crew of a passing ship, and eventually made his way to New England, where he converted to Christianity and befriended theology students at Yale and Andover.
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he → leave → Yale
Opukaha’ia described his native Hawaii as a land in need of salvation, and the local ministers decided to send a mission to spread the Gospel and the light of civilization.
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ministers → describe → civilization
Opukaha’ia would return to Hawaii with the missionaries and serve as a translator.
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Opukaha’ia → return → translator
Hiram Bingham, a student at Andover Seminary, heard Opukaha’ia’s call to aid the Hawaiians.
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Bingham → hear → Hawaiians
Born October 30, 1789, Hiram was one of the thirteen children of a Congregational deacon, Calvin Bingham.
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Hiram → bear → deacon
Although his parents had wanted Hiram to take over the family farm and care for them in old age, Hiram felt his duty to God was greater, and convinced his parents to allow him to study for the ministry.
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him → want → ministry
In Hiram’s own words, “Christ undoubtedly requires all his followers to bear their cross, and to forego or forsake whatever comes in competition with rendering him the highest service”.
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whatever → require → service
…and 298 more, not listed.
The Aporia
