I did think of that, especially as I’d read King Leopold’s Ghost fairly recently, but figured that was closer to being Edwardian than Victorian (as well as, well, not Victorian - Leopoldian?)
Victorian ti 1901, Edwardian to 1908 whenl he relinquished control to the Belgian state.
But note:
Under his regime there were 2 to 3 million deaths among the Congolese people.
so, his hands were less bloody than you know who.
And as we all know, going down in history with the epitaph of Not as bad as Hitler is a hell of an achievement 
3 Likes
I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m related to the Rowlands of Denbigh, Wales. Not to Henry Morton Stanley specifically, but to perhaps to his adoptive father, the guy who was described as
The boy John was given his father’s surname of Rowlands and brought up by his maternal grandfather, Moses Parry. The once-prosperous butcher was living in reduced circumstances but cared for the boy until he died, when John was five. Rowlands stayed with families of cousins and nieces for a short time, but he was eventually sent to St Asaph Union Workhouse for the Poor. The overcrowding and lack of supervision resulted in his being frequently abused by older boys. Historian Robert Aldrich suggests that he was raped in 1847 by the headmaster of the workhouse.[4] When John was ten, his mother and two half-siblings stayed for a short while in this workhouse, but of course he did not recognize them; the master told him who they were.[5] He stayed until the age of 15. After completing an elementary education, he was employed as a pupil teacher in a National School.
Henry Morton Stanley - Wikipedia
And it only gets worse.
Stanley was approached by King Leopold II of the Belgians, the ambitious Belgian monarch, who in 1876 had organized a private holding company disguised as an international scientific and philanthropic association, which he called the International African Association. The King spoke of his intentions to introduce Western civilization and bring religion to that part of Africa, but did not mention he wanted to claim the lands. At the end of his life, the King was embittered by the growing perception that his establishment of a Congo Free State was mitigated by its unscrupulous government. In addition, the spread of sleeping sickness across central Africa is attributed to the movements of Stanley’s enormous baggage train[26] and the Emin Pasha relief expedition.
Ick, Well, if I’m to be told on live tv that an ancestor of mine owned slaves
i suppose I’ll have to take it in stride.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
