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In the 21st century, whether the job is evangelism or social outreach, women missionaries are essential to cross-cultural work. Who has not heard of Lottie Moon, Gladys Aylward, Elisabeth Elliott, Mother Teresa, and many others? Yet when the "modern missionary movement" began, many people considered pioneer mission work too dangerous for women. Throughout the history of Christianity, the typical missionary had been a celibate male. But a breakthrough came in the early 19th century: When the American Board commissioned the first American foreign missionaries, the young volunteers refused to go unless they were allowed to marry.

Chief among the proponents of missionary marriage was Adoniram Judson. During the clergy association meeting that authorized the first American mission, he boarded with the family of John Hasseltine, a deacon at the local host church. As tradition has it, Hasseltine's daughter Ann waited on the table and caught Adoniram's eye. After considerable pressure from him—and opposition from others who thought she was throwing her life away—Ann agreed to marry Adoniram and thereby became one of the three pioneer American missionary women.

Of the three young wives, Ann's career was the most extraordinary. Her accomplishments were so phenomenal that she set high standards for future women missionaries to come—and proved for all time that women belonged in the mission field as much as men.

Early accounts of Ann Hasseltine indicate that she was a cheerful, strong-minded, and intelligent young girl. Her parents allowed her to attend Bradford Academy, one of the first chartered academies that admitted women. In 1806, as a revival swept through the school, Ann began a spiritual struggle against worldliness and gaiety that lasted for several weeks. The catalyst was her reading of Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education by Hannah More, a prominent English evangelical writer and educational reformer. More argued that education for women should be geared toward making them of service to others, rather than transmitting ornamental accomplishments that served merely to assist them in finding husbands. Ann was struck by the sinfulness and futility of a life devoted to herself, and she decided to seek a life of "usefulness."

After her conversion, Ann put herself on a course of theological self-study that was characteristic of a male student enrolled at Andover Seminary. A friend recalled that she studied Scripture daily, using the appropriate commentaries as guides: "When reading Scripture, sermons, or other works, if she met with any sentiment or doctrine, which seemed dark and intricate, she would mark it, and beg the first clergyman who called at her father's to elucidate and explain it."

Ann was not content to remain in her parents' home until marriage. Seeking usefulness, she went out into the world to teach young children and soon gained a reputation for helping to bring her pupils to the point of Christian decision.

After Adoniram Judson met Ann at her father's house in Bradford, he proposed marriage to her by letter. But Ann was unable to answer him immediately—not only because she barely knew him, but because she realized she would be marrying not only a man, but a vocation.

She wrote in her diary on September 10, 1810: "An opportunity has been presented to me, of spending my days among the heathen, attempting to persuade them to receive the Gospel. Were I convinced of its being a call from God, and that it would be more pleasing to him, for me to spend my life in this way than in any other, I think I should be willing to relinquish every earthly object, and, in full view of dangers and hardships, give myself up to the great work."

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