Henry Morton Stanley

Lore & Background

Henry Morton Stanley was born as John Rowlands in Denbigh, Wales, to an unmarried mother who abandoned him. He was raised by his grandfather and later sent to a workhouse, where he suffered abuse. He emigrated to the United States in 1859, eventually taking the name Henry Morton Stanley after a wealthy trader he claimed to have befriended, though this account is disputed. He served in the Confederate Army, Union Army, and Union Navy during the American Civil War, then became a journalist. In 1868, he reported on the Battle of Magdala for the New York Herald, bribing a telegraph operator to send his story first.

Stanley found David Livingstone on 10 November 1871 in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika. He later popularized the greeting 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' though it does not appear in his journal from the time and may have been invented afterward. He subsequently led the first trans-Africa expedition (1874–1877) and worked for King Leopold II, enabling the occupation of the Congo Basin. He commanded the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition and later served as a Liberal Unionist MP for Lambeth North from 1895 to 1900. He was knighted in 1897.

Reader's Guide

More than a century after his death, Stanley's legacy remains the subject of enduring controversy. Although he personally had high regard for many of the native African people who accompanied him on his expeditions, the exaggerated accounts of corporal punishment and brutality in his books fostered a public reputation as a hard-driving, cruel leader, in contrast to the supposedly more humanitarian Livingstone. His contemporary image in Britain suffered from the perception that he was American. In the 20th century, his reputation was also seriously damaged by his role in establishing the Congo Free State for King Leopold II. Nevertheless, he is recognised for his important contributions to Western knowledge of the geography of Central Africa and for his resolute opposition to the slave trade in East Africa. The article notes that his birth certificate described him as a bastard, and the stigma of illegitimacy weighed heavily upon him all his life. Historian Robert Aldrich has alleged that the headmaster of the workhouse raped or sexually assaulted Rowlands, and that the older Rowlands was 'incontrovertibly bisexual'.

Did You Know?

• Stanley was possibly the only man to serve in the Confederate Army, the Union Army, and the Union Navy.
• He bribed a telegraph operator to send his report of the Battle of Magdala before the official army report, irritating British officials.
• The famous greeting 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' does not appear in Stanley's journal from the time and may have been invented later.
• Stanley's birth certificate described him as a bastard, and the stigma of illegitimacy weighed heavily upon him all his life.