In Darkest Africa: Or; the Quest; Rescue and Retreat of Emin; Governor of Equatoria by Henry Morton Stanley. On 28 October 1888 the Welsh-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley was entrenched deep in the unexplored Ituri rainforest of the Congo. He had been hacking his way back and forth through the jungle for months in his attempt to relieve the colonial governor Emin Pasha; whose province in the southern Sudan was under siege by a coalition of Sudanese and Arab insurgents under the command of the messianic cleric Muhammad Ahmad. Famished and exhausted; Stanley sent his East-African porters out to pillage what they could from native farms. Eventually persuaded by Stanley; they proceeded to the Indian Ocean by way of the Semliki River which was found to connect Lake Albert with Lake Edward. Stanley’s own melodramatic account of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition; In Darkest Africa; sold 150;000 copies in 1890 alone and was translated into ten European languages.
#10209300 in Books 2016-06-21Original language:English 8.50 x .12 x 5.50l; #File Name: 153483670548 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Wide-ranging overview rooted in ConnecticutBy Sarah Moment AtisFrances L. Smith’s “The Black Holocaust of American Slavery and The Underground Railroad†(Arkett Publishing 2007; 2011; 2013; 2016) is only 48 pages in length but occupies a special niche in the surge of interest in this topic evident most recently in historian Eric Foner’s “Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad†(2015); Colson Whitehead’s novel “The Underground Railroad†(2016); and Steve McQueen’s 2013 film “Twelve Years a Slave.†Smith’s book falls into two parts arranged in short sections: 1) Introduction; 2) Overview of Slavery; 3) The Underground Railroad; 4) Emancipation; 5) The Amistad Case; and 6) Historical Review of the Underground Railroad; which consists of a timeline starting in 1526 when a group of Africans brought by Spanish explorers escaped to settle with Native Americans in the vicinity of what is now South Carolina. Smith includes in her discussion the grim conditions following the Emancipation Act of 1863 when “freedom for slaves turned into another form of slavery†(p.29) and emphasizes the dire circumstances facing African Americans at the end of the Civil War in a societal context which saw the rise of a white terrorist organization; The Ku Klux Klan; headed by former Confederate army officers. The second part of the book is focused on the Connecticut town of New Milford where the author has resided for many decades: 1) A Brief History of African Americans in New Milford; Connecticut; which gives names of slaves; emancipated slaves and slave owners starting in 1707; 2) The Underground Railroad--New Milford; CT; which provides photographs of eight historic buildings; 3) The African Methodist Episcopal Church; which focuses on the 1892 dedication of the Turner Chapel named in honor of Bishop Henry McNeil Turner; the first black chaplain in the Armed Forces of the U.S.A.; and 4) Civil War Veterans Troops of New Milford which displays a handsome reenactment photograph of the great-grandson of George A. Dunbar who joined the 29th Infantry from New Milford in 1863. A preview of this focus on New Milford is indicated at the start of the book by a page reproducing (in the 2016 printing) the program for the dedication of the New Milford Underground Railroad Plaque on July 12; 2012. The program expresses gratitude to the New Milford Historical Society “for allowing the plaque to be prominently placed on their grounds for all residents and visitors to see.†The guest speakers included Mayor Pat Murphy; Ms. Kathleen Zuris; Assistant Curator of The New Milford Historical Society and Mrs. Fran Smith; the author of the book being reviewed. The final four pages of Smith’s book consist of a glossary; a list of twenty-two African-American antislavery newspapers published in cities across the country; and a valuable one-page bibliography that includes; for example; Solomon Northup’s 1854 memoir; “Twelve Years A Slave;†upon which the award-wining film was based; as well as an entry for the pivotal abolitionist essay by Quaker John Woolman; “Some Considerations in the Keeping of Negroes†published in Philadelphia in 1754. Smith provides no footnotes and works mentioned in the text are not repeated in the bibliography. Nevertheless; readers will face no difficulty in following up on; for example; the chilling quote Smith provides from the 1789 autobiography of Olaudah Equiano; an Ibo man captured as a child by slave traders: “The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea and a slave ship which was then riding at anchor and waiting for its cargo. This filled me with astonishment which was soon converted into terror.†(p. 9)It is such use of primary sources and the direct vividness of Smith’s narration that help the reader dismiss the numerous editorial oversights that mar this book. What is more; the book and its cover offer deeply moving illustrations by Zach Osborn who works in the tradition of graphic novel and comic book. The expressive power of the images and the captions beneath them serve to bind together the disparate sections of the book each of which provides a compelling entry point into the historical experience of those enslaved in America; their brave efforts to escape bondage; and the help given them by courageous people of diverse backgrounds; gender and color. Frances L. Smith’s slim volume offers information not easily found elsewhere; and I am very happy to have purchased this book.
