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King Leopold's Ghost Book Report

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During King Leopold II’s life, spanning from 1835-1909, his greatest financial achievement was that of the Congo Free State and it’s rubber. This time period arrived directly following the Industrial Revolution, so many people were still looking for resources. The people of Europe also didn’t give much credit to African people and believed they were not very civilized. To do so well Leopold took major advantage of the Congo’s people's fears. The Book King Leopold’s Ghost written by Adam Hochschild is about the treachery Leopold laid down on the native people for the precious rubber. Adam Hochschild is an American author, he covers a lot of human rights in his writing, when he wrote this book he had not known about the atrocities of Leopold’s …show more content…

William Shepherd was an african american, he was also a missionary for the Southern Presbyterian church. William Shepherd had always wanted to live in Africa, and his time there was full of happiness, from learning the native language to having pet parrots and monkeys (Hochschild, 154). After Leopold get’s a hold of this land there is not time for black american missionaries to play with the animals. The time period that the Belgian King has them colonized is filled with all back breaking work for african descendants and no joy for anyone friends with the native people. Shepherd took a long visit to the town of Ifuca in the kingdom of Bakuba, and met “the finest looking race I had seen in Africa”, who also ran one of “Central Africa’s most sophisticated political systems” (Hochschild, 157). Around eight years after Shepherds visit Leopold’s iron fist finally hit Kuba’s capital, looting them of all their great artworks, pieces of art to the quality of two presidents. After these raids it is already determined that the people in that capital would no longer be using their talents for artistry, but for giving the villainous europeans their precious rubber. They would begin to use their knives for rubber vines, instead of making exquisite carved tools. Life after the European invasion of Kuba and all other African villages was devastating and

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