These images show Henry Morton Stanley and Amasa Delano, two men who prospered greatly from the racism of their times. H. M. Stanley, top, was hired by King Leopold, and is credited with 'discovering' the mouth of the Congo river. Amasa Delano, pictured below, was rewarded with a medal and money after his encounter with, and retrieval of, the Tyral and its cargo of slaves.
The cultural norms of the time were so backward that these men were rewarded for their unspeakable acts in ridiculously lavish ways, H. M. Stanley was knighted by the queen of England herself in 1899 while Captain Delano received personal commendation from the King of Spain. These rewards from the state seem to justify the cruelty and amorality of the individuals.
These incentives offered for focus on the capitol of both the land and its people served as legitimizing forces for those conducting the actual dealings with slavery and exploitation of native peoples. True, on occasion, the cruelty of the individual cannot be denied, especially in the case of H. M. Stanley, yet should the blame be leveled solely at those who cut off the hands of the people of the Congo, or at those who provide the incentive for these actions in the form of medals and prizes? Even Captain Delano, professing to be such a humanitarian, in the end is motivated to spare the lives of the slaves on board the Tyral so that they may be captured as undamaged 'property'. This manic focus on capitol gains above all else is the true driving force behind imperialism, was it also this which brought out the cruelty in men such as Stanley and in Conrad's novel, Kurtz?
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| H. M. Stanley |
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| Captain Amasa Delano |
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