King Leopold's Ghost

The “first heretic” of the chapter’s title is George Washington Williams, whom Hochschild also describes as the “first great dissenter” (102) in the “moral inferno” (102) of Leopold’s Congo. Williams first voices his concerns about what he witnessed in the Congo in An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo, by Colonel the Honorable Geo. W. Williams, of the United States of America. As Hochschild notes, Williams is not actually a colonel, a fact that undermines his credibility. More importantly, however, Williams is black, and so it takes another decade and attention from white critics before his concerns are heard.

Hochschild tells us about Williams’ life before the Congo. Born in 1849, he enlisted in the Union Army in 1864 and fought in the Civil War. After that, he fought in the Mexican Army during the overthrow of Maximilian and Carlota and then in the U.S. Army fighting the Plains Indians. Afterwards, he studied at Howard University and then at Newton Theological Institute, and became a pastor at the Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston. “After only a year as a minister, [Hochschild tells us] he moved to Washington, D.C., and founded a national black newspaper, the Commoner” (104).