Gender, power and sexual abuse in the pacific: Rev. Simpson's "improper liberties"

In 1843, on the island of Tahiti, the evangelical missionary Rev.

Alexander Simpson was accused of sexually assaulting three of the female students under his care, and of taking 'improper liberties' with at least three more.

The events did not come out in public for at least a decade, while Simpson's power in the local community only grew, and rumblings relating to his wrong-doings were ruthlessly 'crushed'. 'Historic' sexual abuse has taken on a new meaning in the modern world in which we live.

Such cases now are defined as having occurred in what we might consider the recent past, and yet there is value in tracing the history of sexual abuse more deeply.

By exploring this case, this work gives us key insights into the gender, power and indeed racial dynamics of a particular case of sexual abuse on the frontiers of European colonialism.