Black Livingstone
Subtitle: a true tale of adventure in the nineteenth-century Congo
By: Pagan Kennedy.
Publisher: Viking
Published: 2002
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 237
Subjects: Sheppard, William H. 1865-1927; Presbyterian Church in the U.S. -- Missions -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History; African American missionaries -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Biography; Missionaries -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Biography; African American Presbyterians -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Biography; Presbyterians -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Biography; African American missionaries -- Biography; Missionaries -- United States -- Biography; African American Presbyterians -- Biography; Presbyterians -- United States -- Biography
Genres: Biography.
Description: "The Belgian Congo at the turn of the century was the world of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and a brutal time in African history, when European companies were slaughtering the Congolese in an effort to harvest the rubber needed for telegraph and electrical cables. William Sheppard was there to record the atrocities and to help pioneer a worldwide civil rights movement on behalf of the Congolese people.".

"Sheppard, an African American, was born in Virginia only days before the end of the Civil War. After graduating from the night school of the Hampton Institute, he went on to study theology at the Tuscaloosa Theological Institute, now Stillman College, where he received his graduate degree. Shortly afterward, he requested a mission in Africa, which was denied him until a suitable white man could be found to accompany him.".

"In 1890, at the age of twenty-four, Sheppard departed for what was then the Belgian Congo with Samuel Lapsley, a white man who had grown up on a plantation and was the son of a prominent Alabama judge. Lapsley died of fever barely a year later, but Sheppard remained for more than twenty years, running a mission in Africa staffed by black Americans.".

"By modern standards he was an impressive man - at the turn of the century he was extraordinary. This is the first account of his remarkable life."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-227) and index.
Maps also on lining papers.