Resources in New York Public Libraries

Serials and Monographs: Politics

Aborigines Protection Society. The treatment of natives in the Congo; a statement submitted to His Majesty's government on behalf of the Aborigines Protection Society. [London, 1902]. 10 l. 34 cm. H. R. Fox Bourne, secretary of the Aborigines Protection Society and the writer of this document, was a knowledgeable and highly-respected opponent of Leopold's. A historian and essayist, he wrote articles on the Congo for the Times in London.

Burrows, Guy and Edgar Canisius. The curse of Central Africa. With which is incorporated A campaign amongst cannibals by Edgar Canisius ... With coloured map and numerous illustrations from unique and valuable photographs taken by the author and others. London, R. A. Everett & co., ltd., 1903. xxviii, [10], 276 p., 1 ., viii p., 1 ., [8] p. incl. front., illus., ports. plates, fold. map. 26 cm.

Burrows had worked for Henry Morton Stanley, and wrote an adventure travel book called In the land of the Pigmies, to which Stanley had written the introduction. He, like many other former soldiers, was later made an official of the Congo Free State. Edgar Canisius was a soldier in the Force Publique. This book, which criticizes the King and his agents in no uncertain terms, is an insider's - indeed, an administrator's - view of the mistreatment of the Congo natives. Canisius described a six-week campaign that he participated in during which his unit killed 900 Congolese. When this book came out it, especially Canisius's testimony, was quoted in all the newspapers and referred to in official documents and in speeches made by members of the Congo Reform Movement.

Congo Reform Association. Will civilisation hearken? The appeal of fifty-two pioneers of Christianity on the Congo, comprising Englishmen, Canadians, Americans, Germans, Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians. Liverpool: John Richardson & Sons, Printers, 1906. 8 p. Prefatory material by E.D. Morel.

The Congo Reform Association was modeled on the organizations of the Abolitionist movement. National chapters were formed in England, the United States, and several European countries, especially the Scandinavian countries. The national chapters were broken down into local chapters, facilitating grass-roots and direct action advocacy. Some of these local chapters held meetings that attracted up to 5,000 people, often with prominent clergymen, members of Parliament, Congressmen, Peers of the Realm, and other celebrities sharing the dais. These celebrities also lent their names to the C.R.A.'s petitions and fund-raising campaigns, in some cases publishing pamphlets of their own (see Twain and Doyle, below). The Association published heavily and lobbied the United States and English governments, agitating for U.S.-British intervention on behalf of the Congolese.

Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930. The crime of the Congo. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, c1909. 128 p. 21 cm.

Morel, E. D. The Congo slave state: a protest against the new African slavery; and an appeal to the public of Great Britain, of the United States, and of the continent of Europe. Liverpool: J. Richardson & Sons, Printers, 1903. 112 p. illus. (maps) 25 cm.

Morel, E. D. King Leopold's rule in Africa. London: W. Heinemann, 1904. xxiv, 466 p. front., plates, ports., 2 maps (1 fold.) 23 cm.

Morel, E. D. Red rubber; the story of the rubber slave trade flourishing on the Congo in the year of grace 1906. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906. 213 p. Also published in New York by The Nassau Print.

Morel, the leader of the Congo Reform Movement, was an amazingly prolific writer. He put out a monthly magazine, a weekly newspaper, and usually wrote one or two books a year, as well as innumerable pamphlets, speeches, and letters to the editor. His correspondence is reportedly massive. In 1904 or 1905, Morel met a missionary named Alice Seeley Harris, whose photographs Morel published in his books and projected (as lantern slides) in his lectures. These photographs are now held in the archives of the Anti-Slavery League in London. One might expect the New York Public Library to hold copies of some of these widely printed photos (some were also published in Mark Twain's King Leopold's soliloquy, for example), but such is not the case.

Sheppard, William Henry. Presbyterian pioneers in Congo; introduction by S.H. Chester. Kentucky: Pentecostal Publishing Company, 1900. 157 p. : ill. ; 18 cm.

Sheppard was among the many Presbyterian missionaries in the Congo who became politicized because of the atrocities that they witnessed. Sheppard's unique perspective, however, is that he was black. This book, and the many pamphlets and open letters that he later wrote, incorporate a sensitivity to the rights of the Congo natives absent in even the most vociferous white Congo reform writers.

Starr, Frederick. The truth about the Congo; the Chicago tribune articles. Chicago: Forbes & company, 1907. viii, 129 p., plates. 20 cm.

Starr wrote 15 articles for the Chicago Tribune, reprinted here in book form, refuting charges against King Leopold, the Force Publique, and the rubber companies. Starr, an anthropologist who believed in the inferiority of "primitive" peoples, gained his knowledge about the Congo after a year-long tour of the country paid for by the King of the Belgians.

Twain, Mark. King Leopold's soliloquy: a defense of his Congo rule. Mass.: P.R. Warren Co., 1905. Edition 2nd ed. 56 p., [7] leaves of plates: ill.; 19 cm. "The publishers desire to state that ... it is [Mr. Clemens's] wish that all proceeds of sales ... shall be used in furthering effort for relief of the people of the Congo State. Boston, Mass., Jan. 1, 1906"--Label mounted on half-title p.

The AMNH copy of this small book is housed with a letter from the Congo Reform Association exhorting the reader to take specific advocacy steps on behalf of the Congolese, such as organizing meetings and writing letters to Congressmen. A transcript and facsimile of this book is available online:

http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/i2l/kls.html

United States. Dept. of State. Conditions in the independent state of the Kongo. [Washington, 1906-08?]. 4 v. in 1. 34 cm.

This is a collection of State Department documents bound together in chronological order. It includes eyewitness reports of the practices of the rubber companies, correspondence between the British Foreign Office and the State Department, and reports of the American consul-general in the Congo. It is a revealing look at the diplomatic pressures that the United States and Britain brought to bear on King Leopold and the Belgians.

Herausgegeben, eingeleitet und kommentiert von Rold Italiaander. Konig Leopolds Kongo, Dokumente und Pamphlete von Mark Twain, Edmund D. Morel, Roger Casement. Rutten + Loening Verlag Munchen, 1964.