James Cameron (missionary)

James Cameron (1799–1875) was a 19th-century Scottish artisan missionary with a background in carpentry who, over the course of twenty-three years of service in Madagascar with the London Missionary Society (1826–1835; 1861–1875), played a major role in the Christianization and industrialization of that island state, then under the rule of the Merina monarchy.

Cameron was baptised in Little Dunkeld in Perthshire, Scotland on 6 January 1800 and was a direct lineal descendant of MacIain Chief of Glencoe. His early years were spent in and around Murthly Castle where he learned carpentry. His father Thomas spent his life in the service of the laird of Murthly. The LMS mission in Madagascar, established in 1820, accepted Cameron's petition to serve five years later when he was 25 years of age. Prior to arriving in Madagascar in September 1826 during the reign of the progressive King Radama I, he spent a year in Manchester assisting with the development of machinery which would eventually be installed at Amparibe, Madagascar, to modernize the production of cotton yarn.

From Cameron's residence at Ambatonakanga where he constructed the first Christian temple and the first Western-style school in Madagascar, he employed and educated 600 young Malagasy in the construction of machinery and other public works projects. He introduced brick-making in 1826, a technology that was later to be used in a new Malagasy architectural style that was widely adopted throughout the Highlands of Madagascar. Cameron's brick house in Ambatonakanga would serve as a model for the new architectural style. He was instrumental in overseeing the installation of the first printing press on the island, which was used to print a translation of the Bible in the Malagasy language. Cameron was also a key contributor to the manufacture of gunpowder in Imerina and the introduction of hydraulic power drawn Lake Anosy, a man-made lake in the center of modern-day Antananarivo created for this purpose.

Upon the death of Radama I in 1828, the accession of his wife, Queen Ranavalona I, to the throne, and her subsequent attempt to rid the island of foreign influence, Christian proselytizing was forbidden and those practicing the new faith were actively persecuted. According to a speech delivered at Cameron's funeral, it was thanks to his intervention that the LMS was able to maintain a presence on the island until 1835, restricted though it might have been:

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