Anna Leonowens
In 1862, recommended by Tan Kim Ching in Singapore, an English woman named Anna Leonowens, whose influence was later the subject of great Thai controversy, was hired by the court. It is still debated how much this affected the worldview of one of his sons, Prince Chulalongkorn, who succeeded to the throne. Her story would become the inspiration for the Hollywood movie Anna and the King of Siam and the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, which, because of their fictionalized historical references and perceived disrespectful treatment of King Mongkut, were initially banned in Thailand as the Thai government and people considered them to be lèse majesté. To clarify the historical record, well-known Thai intellectuals Seni and Kukrit Pramoj in 1948 wrote The King of Siam Speaks. The Pramoj brothers sent their manuscript to the American politician and diplomat Abbot Low Moffat (1901–1996), who drew on it for his 1961 biography, Mongkut the King of Siam. Moffat donated the Pramoj manuscript to the United States Library of Congress in 1961.
Anna claimed that her conversations with Prince Chulalongkorn about human freedom, and her relating to him the story of Uncle Tom's Cabin, became the inspiration for his abolition of slavery almost 40 years later. However, the slavery system in Siam differed from that in the United States with no racial distinction between slaves and free persons. Slavery in Thailand was sometimes a voluntary alternative for individuals to be rid of social and financial obligations. One could be punished for torturing slaves in Siam and some slaves could buy their freedom. Western scholars and observers have commented that Siamese slaves were treated better than European servants.
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