Protestant images of Islam: Disparaging stereotypes reconfirmed

The paper explores the impact of two largely overlooked factors which sustained and reconfirmed the disparaging images American Protestants harboured towards Islam, particularly those which prefigured and informed the perceptions New England missionaries carried over with them in their efforts to evangelize the Orient and the Levant. First, America's encounter with the Barbary States of North Africa at the turn of the nineteenth century, are considered. Second, the life and thought of Henry H. Jessup, a leading missionary in the Levant, is examined as illustrative evidence of the reports and impressions relayed back by the missionaries themselves.