Chapter Fourteen - To Flood His Deeds with Day


 

Chapter fourteen of King Leopold’s Ghost is called “To Flood His Deeds with Day.” E.D. Morel is flooding Leopold’s deeds with day by bringing to light the horrid and cruel things he is doing to the African people. However, the ironic part in this chapter is that while bringing to light Leopold’s deeds, Morel also tries to flood his own deeds with day. Morel seems to be boasting about his own deeds so people will realize how great he is; he was proud of what he was doing.

 

Word count: 88

 

This chapter was all about Morel, his life, and him flooding Leopold’s deeds with day. The beginning of the chapter tells about the Crusade that he was arranging through the Congo Reform Association. The main reason that Morel could do it all was because he had a devoted wife at home to run the household. She agreed with Casement that Morel should form an organization that focused mainly on the Congo.  Morel also rarely made mistakes, and if he did, he never mentioned them. He was also very into himself and would brag about his books, his newspaper and his work. However his work did grab the attention of many people against the slave trade.

 

People were also appalled when King Leopold was sixty-five; he married a sixteen year old girl name Caroline. Leopold was targeted by everyone, cartoonists, newspapers, and everyone one who had originally disliked his ways. At the end of the chapter Caroline gives birth to a son, he was given the title of Duke of Tevuren and she became the Baroness de Vaughan. This was the time that political cartoons of Leopold began to show up in newspapers. The cartoons mostly showed Leopold powering over small Africans with their hands cut off, or him cutting off their hands with his own sword. But one cartoon that shocked many was a cartoon that showed Leopold holding his newborn son, while he was surrounded by Congolese corpses with their hands cut off. The caption said: VENGEANCE FROM ON HIGH. Leopold was shocked and annoyed from being targeted so much, and he had no idea what more could come.

 

Word count: 270

 

A quote that seems to summarize this chapter is the quote from page 215 is “No zeal, no Faith, inspired this Leopold, nor any madness of half-splendid birth. Cool-eyed, he loosed the hounds that rend and slay, Just that his coffers might be gorged with gold. Embalm him, Time! Forget him not, O Earth, Trumpet his name, and flood his deeds with day.”

 

This quote was a poem that was showed in a slideshow at a protest meeting. Poems were used at these meetings, as well as photos and letters, so people could express their feelings towards Leopold’s Congo. This poem shows the true meaning of this chapter because it states that Leopold had no meaning or inspiration for doing the things he did. No Faith could have directed him to do those things, nothing could have inspired him to act in such a terrible way, it was his own choice and he will suffer the consequences once his deeds are brought to light.

 

Word Count: 101

 

Total Word Count: 522