The Review of Korean Studies
- Apply for Authority
- P-ISSN1229-0076
- E-ISSN2773-9351
- SCOPUS, ESCI
ISSN : 1229-0076
“A Shrewd Man of Business”: Frederick Jenkins and the Oppert Incident
- Downloaded
- Viewed
Abstract
The Oppert Incident, in which a German adventurer and French priest helped lead an expedition to steal the bones of King Gojong’s grandfather to hold hostage to force the Korean government to open the country to trade and cease the persecution of Catholics, is well-known. What is not as well-known is the fact that an American citizen, Frederick Jenkins, played a key role in providing the financial support and weapons necessary for the expedition to take place, and that after its failure, he was tried by the American consul of Shanghai in an unsuccessful attempt to punish him, in part because of the damage he had done to future Korea-US relations. However, there is little in English on the Oppert Incident in general or the role Jenkins played within it. This paper will therefore examine Frederick Jenkins’ role in the expedition and why he participated in it. In so doing, this paper will shed light on our understanding of the early relationship between the United States government, American citizens, and Korea, revealing that the comparative weakness of American diplomatic officials prevented them from restraining the problematic behavior of US citizens such as Jenkins.
- keywords
- Oppert Incident, Ernst Oppert, Frederick Jenkins, the General Sherman, George Seward, US-Korea relations
Reference
Anderson, David. 1985. Imperialism and Idealism: American Diplomats in China, 1861-1898. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Baker, Richard Terrill. 1947. Ten Thousand Years: Methodism’s First century in China. New York: Board of Missions and Church Extension, the Methodist Church.
Betts, Albert Deems. 1952. History of South Carolina Methodism. Columbia:The Advocate Press.
Bickers, Robert. 2011. The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914. London: Allen Lane.
Carr, Caleb. 1992. The Devil Soldier: The American Soldier of Fortune who became a God in China. New York: Random House.
Cho, Hyeonbeom. 2017. “Deoksan sakkeon gwa Bulranseo seongyosa Perong” [French Missionary Féron and the 1868 Deoksan Incident]. Jeongsin munhwa yeongu 40 (3): 62-91.
Choi, Young Choe. 1972. The Rule of the Taewŏn’gun, 1864-1873, Restoration in Yi Korea. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, East Asian Research Center.
Chronicle and Directory for China, Japan and the Philippines for 1865. 1865. Hong Kong: Daily Press.
Chung, Chai-sik. 1995. A Korean Confucian Encounter with the Modern World: Yi Hang-no and the West. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California.
Crum, Mason. 1945. “The Southern Christian Advocate: An Historical Sketch.” In vol. 3 of Methodist Books, 24. Publisher unknown.
Diplomatic Dispatch about the Destruction of the General Sherman, William Henry Seward papers. Rare Books, Special Collections & Preservation, University of Rochester.
The Executive Documents, Printed by Order of the Senate of the United States, First Session of the Thirty-Sixth Congress, 1859-60. 1860. Washington: George W. Bowman, Printer.
Griffin, Eldon. (1938) 1973. Clippers and Consuls: American Consular and Commercial Relations with Eastern Asia, 1845-1860. Wilmington:Scholarly Resources, INC.
Harmon, Nolan B. 1974. The Encyclopedia of World Methodism. Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House.
Kennedy, Charles Stuart. 2015. The American Consul: A History of the United States Consular Service 1776-1924. Washington, DC: New Academia Publishing.
Kim, Key-Hiuk. 1980. The Last Phase of the East Asian World Order, 1860-1882. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kim, Sun-ju. 2004. “Representing Korea as the ‘Other’: Ernst J. Oppert’s A Forbidden Land: Voyages to the Corea.” The Review of Korean Studies 7 (1):145-64.
Kim, Yongkoo. 2001. The Five Years’ Crisis, 1866-1871. Incheon: Circle.
Lacy, Walter N. 1948. A Hundred Years of China Methodism. New York:Abingdon-Cokesbury Press.
Larsen, Kirk W. 2008. Tradition, Treaties, and Trade: Qing Imperialism and Chosŏn Korea, 1850-1910. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard University Press.
Larsen, Kirk W. 2016. “Competing Imperialisms in Korea.” In the Routledge Handbook of Modern Korean History, edited by Michael J. Seth, 27-42. London:Routledge.
List of Diplomatic and Consular Officers of the United States in Foreign Countries. 1868. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Neff, Robert D., and Sunghwa Cheong. 2009. Korea through Western Eyes. Seoul: Seoul National University Press.
No, Hyegyeong. 2014. “Opereuteu ui Joseon insik” [Oppert’s Perception of the Joseon Dynasty]. Yeoksa wa silhak 55: 201-34.
Oppert, Ernest. 1880. A Forbidden Land: Voyages to the Corea. London:Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington.
Pak, Ilgeun. 1970. “Jenkins e daehan jusanghaemiyeongsa jaepan” [The American Consul’s Trial of Jenkins].” Busan daehakkyo nonmunjip 11: 257-74.
Sappol, Michael. 2002. A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy and Embodied Social Identity in Nineteenth. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Scully, Eileen. 2001. Bargaining with the State from Afar: American Citizenship in Treaty Port China, 1844-1942. Columbia: Columbia University Press.
Seward, George. 1867. The United States Consulates in China: A Letter with Inclosures of the Consul-General in China to the Secretary of State. Printed for private circulation.
Seward, George. 1874. Regulations for the United States Consular Courts in China. Shanghai: Lane, Crawford & Co.
Strand, Wilson. 2002. “Satanic Devils in the Hermit Kingdom.” Transactions 77: 143-59.
Teng, S. Y. 1971. The Taiping Rebellion and the Western Powers: A Comprehensive Survey. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press.
Tong, Te-king. 1964. United States Diplomacy in China, 1844-1860. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
United States Department of State, ed. 1868-1869. Executive Documents Printed by Order of the House of Representatives, During the Third session of the Fortieth Congress, 1868-’69. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
United States Department of State, ed. 1870-1871. Executive Documents Printed by Order of the House of Representatives, 1870-’71. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
Van Lieu, Joshua. 2016. “The Nation, the People, and the Possibilities of the Post-National: Historiographies of Late Nineteenth-Century Korean Reform Movements.” In the Routledge Handbook of Modern Korean History, edited by Michael J. Seth, 43-61. London: Routledge.
Yen, Ching-Hwang. 1985. Coolies and Mandarins: China’s Protection of Overseas Chinese during the Late Ch’ing Period (1851-1911). Singapore: Singapore University Press.
- Downloaded
- Viewed
- 0KCI Citations
- 0WOS Citations