George Washington Williams The First Heretic

“The First Heretic” At this point in the class, the first heretic has arisen, George Washington Williams. He wrote an open letter to King Leopold II, condemning him for his horrendous treatment of the Congolese people including breaking all of the promises that Leopold built the Congo Free State on. While all of these claims to be proven true to the fullest extent and are later used to argue against Leopold by the international Congo protest movement. However, at this point in time Williams’ accusations against Leopold and his exploitation of the Congo weren’t very carefully ignored. There are several reasons as to why Williams was not universally believed. First, as Hochschild made clear in the chapter about Williams’ open letter, Williams was never the most honest fellow ever. On several occasions during Hochschild’s character introduction of Williams, he brings up the “colonel’s” lies. On pages 103 and 105, Hochschild outlines all of Williams’ character flaws, beyond even his embellishments. Hochschild states that Williams often misuses titles he was given or even makes up titles. For instance, Williams claimed he had a doctoral degree, which he did not. And while he received the title Colonel, it was not from the U.S. Army. Hochschild also goes on to state Williams’s money problems, which seem to hinder the colonel at every turn. These …show more content…
While many people refuted the letter as any shred of a possibility of truth, his words were still seen and read. The British minister in Brussels, even after having a stern lecture on Williams’ faslehoods by none other than Leopold himself, wrote back to his home country acknowledging that despite Leopold’s interference, there was “a good deal of agreeable truth in his pamphlets.” In another instance, a missionary who had visited the Congo credited all of Williams’ claims. However, the man didn’t think it was his place to question Leopold’s