King Leopold's Ghost Analysis

In King Leopold`s Ghost, the author Adam Hochschild conveys many attempts to challenge the actions of King Leopold`s control in the Congo. This was to reach an international audience at the time of the 20th century. Protestors depended on a variety of writing techniques to make their case successful. For example the use of direct letters to officials, published “open letters”, articles in newspapers, and public speeches. These protesters were George Washington Williams, William Sheppard, Edmund Dene Morel, and Roger Casement. These protesters became aware of the situation in the Congo in different ways. They also had diversity in how they protested through their writing. Although Edmund Dene Morel and Roger Casement share a comparative approach.
George Washington Williams was a black American. He had come to the Congo over a route that seemed almost as if it took him through several different lives. He was in the U.S. Army, fought battles, attended University`s, and graduated from Newton in 1874. Williams married and became a pastor. He also created a milestone in the literature of human rights and of investigative journalism. This work is titled An Open Letter to His Serne Majesty Leopold 2nd , King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo, by Colonel the Honorable Geo.W. Williams, of the Untied States of America(102). As well as submitting a statement to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations urging recognition of the International Association of the Congo. Williams had a plan to go to the Congo to collect material for his book. As Williams traveled up the the great river he had time to take in Africa. When he reached Stanley Falls he could no longer contain what he had felt and saw. He then writes h...

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... to the interior as soon as possible, and to send reports soon”(195). Casement was nineteen years old when he first saw the Congo as he was working on a Elder Dempster ship. For two years he had been sending reports to the Foreign Office about the harsh conditions in the Leopold`s Congo. He spent days at Lake Tumba where rubber slavery operations were ran. Counting the number of people held hostage in a village because they did not meet the rubber quota. Casement wrote in his diary daily talking about the horror he had faced during his adventure. Casement found someone he could share his feelings with about the conditions in the Congo. He had read Edmund Morel`s writings and wanted to meet him. The two shared evidence about what they uncovered in the Congo. Together Morel and Casement would form an organization devoted mainly to campaigning for justice in the Congo.