King Leopold's Ghost provides the reader with the riveting true story of the reign of King Leopold the second of Belgium. King Leopold used many tricks and twisted stories to snatch up undocumented territory in africa before it was all gone. Many other notable figures were involved such as Henry Morton Stanley (John Rowlands), Edmund Dene Morel, Roger Casement, William Sheppard, George washington williams, and many others. King Leopold’s Ghost explores topics such as social class, manipulation, slavery, religion, and wealth in order to enrich your knowledge of what really happened in the Belgian Congo.
For a poor man living in Europe, the Belgian Congo was a place of hope. The Congo was a place of adventure and a place to acquire power and …show more content…
This way, King Leopold would get 2 very expensive and time consuming things done for free: exploring territory, and more potential land. Emin refused the offer, but at no expense to Leopold. He barely had to pay for the land itself, as he had the natives give it to him through a “treaty.” “Many chiefs had no idea what they were signing. Few had seen the written word before, and they were being asked to mark their X's to documents in a foreign language and in legalese.(pg. 72)” Adam Hochschild claims “It was an even worse trade than the indians made for manhattan.(pg. 72)” King Leopold got away with these crimes, but Edmund Morel was on his case. Morel did some research on what was coming in and out of the Congo, and realized that there wasn't hardly anything being shipped to the Congo for trade, meaning that the Belgian Congo was thriving because of …show more content…
Slavery is slowly being abolished, but not quite fast enough to keep King Leopold II from grabbing it by the tail and implementing it into his meticulously planned colony. He was even a member of the Anti-Slavery Conference. The King used slavery to his advantage, gaining workers for little to no cost, and making big bucks. The natives were exploited and forced to work, resisting would most certainly end in death. Women and children were captured and raped, used as motivation for the male slaves to work for no pay. Many slaves were murdered for sport, or for their hands, noses and ears. Men were paid and rewarded for how many hands, noses, or ears they could collect from dead bodies, and sometimes living ones. Others were sent to be shown in exhibits as if they were animals, or even less than animals. In one such exhibit the africans were fed candy and faced indigestion. Additionally “Ota Benga, a pygmy from the Congo was displayed in the monkey house of the Bronx Zoo in september 1906… visitors ogled at his teeth (advertised to be) for devouring human flesh.(pg.176)” Ota committed suicide 10 years after bin rescued from his exhibit. The slaves in the Congo sang terribly depressing songs about their lives under the rule of white man. For example,
“O mother, how unfortunate we are! But the sun will kill the white man, But the moon will kill the white man, But the sorcerer will kill the white man,
For a poor man living in Europe, the Belgian Congo was a place of hope. The Congo was a place of adventure and a place to acquire power and …show more content…
This way, King Leopold would get 2 very expensive and time consuming things done for free: exploring territory, and more potential land. Emin refused the offer, but at no expense to Leopold. He barely had to pay for the land itself, as he had the natives give it to him through a “treaty.” “Many chiefs had no idea what they were signing. Few had seen the written word before, and they were being asked to mark their X's to documents in a foreign language and in legalese.(pg. 72)” Adam Hochschild claims “It was an even worse trade than the indians made for manhattan.(pg. 72)” King Leopold got away with these crimes, but Edmund Morel was on his case. Morel did some research on what was coming in and out of the Congo, and realized that there wasn't hardly anything being shipped to the Congo for trade, meaning that the Belgian Congo was thriving because of …show more content…
Slavery is slowly being abolished, but not quite fast enough to keep King Leopold II from grabbing it by the tail and implementing it into his meticulously planned colony. He was even a member of the Anti-Slavery Conference. The King used slavery to his advantage, gaining workers for little to no cost, and making big bucks. The natives were exploited and forced to work, resisting would most certainly end in death. Women and children were captured and raped, used as motivation for the male slaves to work for no pay. Many slaves were murdered for sport, or for their hands, noses and ears. Men were paid and rewarded for how many hands, noses, or ears they could collect from dead bodies, and sometimes living ones. Others were sent to be shown in exhibits as if they were animals, or even less than animals. In one such exhibit the africans were fed candy and faced indigestion. Additionally “Ota Benga, a pygmy from the Congo was displayed in the monkey house of the Bronx Zoo in september 1906… visitors ogled at his teeth (advertised to be) for devouring human flesh.(pg.176)” Ota committed suicide 10 years after bin rescued from his exhibit. The slaves in the Congo sang terribly depressing songs about their lives under the rule of white man. For example,
“O mother, how unfortunate we are! But the sun will kill the white man, But the moon will kill the white man, But the sorcerer will kill the white man,