1. Readings on chapter 7-10 Discussion Leader : Amy Giardina
King Leopold’s Ghost
Readings on chapter 7-10
Discussion Leader : Amy Giardina
Quiz
Chapter Summaries
Character History
Discussion Topics

2. 1) In 1879, at the age of 30, George Washington Williams was elected the first black member of the Ohio state legislature. He raised “hackles” by trying to win repeal of what law?

3. 2) Throughout his life, George Washington Williams changed jobs multiple times. He maintained some jobs for longer periods of time than others. Name one job, long or short, that he had.

4. 3) Why did Williams want to travel to the Congo
3) Why did Williams want to travel to the Congo? What was his original plan?

5. 4) King Leopold did not want Williams to go to the Congo
4) King Leopold did not want Williams to go to the Congo. But Williams decided to go anyway. What did Williams do in chapter 4 after reaching the Congo that no other person had ever done before?

6. 5) Stanislas Lefranc had stopped soldiers from whipping servant boys
5) Stanislas Lefranc had stopped soldiers from whipping servant boys. The children were supposed to get 25 lashes one day and 25 lashes the next day. For what were the boys being punished for?

7. 6) Konrad Korzeniowski AKA Joseph Conrad wrote a manuscript called Almayer’s Folly, that was based on his experiences in the Congo. When it was finished, Conrad transformed it into a short novel in English. The story was later filmed three separate times, one of them being the movie, Apocalypse Now. What was the name of the novel?

8. 7) Senator John Tyler Morgan of the U
7) Senator John Tyler Morgan of the U.S allowed black American, William Shepard , to leave the U.S to explore the Congo. Why did the white supremacist senator of Alabama condone this?

9. 8) Everybody seemed to like William Shepard
8) Everybody seemed to like William Shepard. The Kuba king, Kot aMbweeky II, threatened to behead any strangers and anyone who helped them reach his kingdom. But he, too, liked Shepard. Why?
Because he had dark skin and could speak some Kuba
Because he was the first black American missionary in the Congo
Because he fathered a son with a village woman

10. 9) There was a rubber boom nearly two decades long
9) There was a rubber boom nearly two decades long. But Leopold knew that the price would eventually drop. Why did the price drop?
10) What is rubber?

11. *BONUS: Leopold established a capital for the new Congo state at the port of what town? (Hint: This was the name for the capital city of the Congo Free State from 1886 to 1926, until it was renamed Kinshasa)

12. Chapter 7 Summary
In this chapter, we learned about the history of George Washington Williams and the importance of his life to the Congo. Williams met General Sanford when he decided to travel to the Congo. Williams’ experience in the Congo lead to him writing the Open Letter to explain the horrors he was witnessing. The Open Letter eventually circulated around Europe and America, relaying the horrors that were taking place in the Congo under King Leopold’s rule. Reacting to the letter, the furious King Leopold devised a campaign to ruin Williams.

13. Chapter 8 Summary
Boma was named the capitol of the Congo. King Leopold leased land to other companies (with a commission, of course) because he no longer had the money to keep funding the expansion of territory. He continued to empty the land of ivory and, deniably, lived off of the profits. In order to maintain control and constant cash flow from ivory, he took in porters to carry out the heavy duties needed for collecting ivory. King Leopold developed his own army called the Force Publique to carry out discipline to the porters who did not obey, and to the rebels that planned to rebel. He still claimed that these were not slaves, but volunteers, in order to maintain his reputation for banning the slave trade.

14. Chapter 9 Summary
River boat captain, Konrad Korzeniowski aka Joseph Conrad, traveled the Congo and wrote the novel, Heart of Darkness, based on his experiences. The main character of the novel, Marlow, is based on himself. He speaks of the brutalities that took place in the Congo. One example mentioned is the heads lining the property of Leon Rom, an officer in the Force Publique.

15. Chapter 10 Summary
Stanley finally becomes wedded. A man named William Shepard questions Stanley’s integrity. Shepard, a black Presbyterian American minister, yearned to travel to the Congo to apprehend more knowledge, but could only do so with a white superior. Shepard worked in Africa for many years to establish Presbyterian missions and recruited the local Africans to help. While there, the rubber boom began. King Leopold shifted his attention from ivory to rubber. He forced the porters to constantly work in order to collect as much rubber from the trees as possible. They even had quotas that had to be met, enforced by the Force Publique officers. They cut off the hands and feet of the workers to show how much rubber they had acquired.

16. About the Characters
George Washington Williams was a heavy drinker early in his life. He was also a minister and a barber. He was enlisted to fight in the Civil War under false names because he was not old enough to participate. He became the first African American to serve in the Ohio legislature. Williams then published his first novel, making him a person of recognition. President Chester Arthur offered him a position to be a U.S Ambassador to Haiti, but the position was cancelled by the administration.
Leon Rom became the district commissioner of Matadi. He later became the officer that led the Force Publique under King Leopold II’s rule. He was one of Conrad’s characters (Kurtz) in the novel, Heart of Darkness. He was known mostly for placing severed heads in his flowerbed in the front of his property as a message.
William Shepard’s first accomplishment was receiving a degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S Naval Academy. He joined the Naval Special Warfare and qualified as a Navy Seal. His specialized training led him to work for NASA where he served as a mission specialist on three space shuttles.

17. Discussion Topics
Chapter 5 describes the horrors that took place in the Congo. Let’s discuss some examples as to how the soldiers mistreated the Africans.
In retrospect, there was a few rebellions against the white soldiers mentioned in the novel. What became of these rebellions? What was the end results?
“If Rom was on hand, he would have certainly greeted a caravan with European newcomers, for there were only a few dozen white men at Leopoldville and Kinshasa, and new ones did not arrive every day. What, if anything, spoken or unspoken, passed between Rom and Conrad we will never know. Rom’s collection of twenty-one African heads lay in a different place and a different time, half a decade in the future, but when Conrad read about Rom in December 1898, it is possible that he made the connection to a young officer he had met in the Congo.” (Chapter 9, page 146)
What is your opinion? Do you think that Conrad had actually crossed paths with Rom at one point or another? Why or why not?