1864-1916 | Revolutionary
Roger Casement was born in Sandycove, County Dublin in September 1864 and raised in Ballycastle County Antrim following the death of his parents.
Casement joined the British Colonial Service in his early twenties and travelled to Africa. He began to investigate the treatment of native workers and in 1904 published a notable report on their inhuman treatment in the Belgian Congo. While in South Africa he met the writer Joseph Conrad and it is believed that the character of Marlow in Conrad’s "Heart of Darkness" is loosely based on Casement.
In 1906 he was sent to Brazil and was promoted to Consul-General in Rio de Janeiro. While there he investigated conditions in the Peruvian rubber plantations and the treatment of the indigenous Amazonian Indians by the Peruvian Amazon Company. In a report to the British foreign secretary, dated 17 March, 1911, Casement detailed the rubber company's use of stocks to punish the Indians: Men, women, and children were confined in them for days, weeks, and often months. ... Whole families ... were imprisoned -fathers, mothers, and children, and many cases were reported of parents dying thus, either from starvation or from wounds caused by flogging, while their offspring were attached alongside of them to watch in misery themselves the dying agonies of their parents.
Casement joined the British Colonial Service in his early twenties and travelled to Africa. He began to investigate the treatment of native workers and in 1904 published a notable report on their inhuman treatment in the Belgian Congo. While in South Africa he met the writer Joseph Conrad and it is believed that the character of Marlow in Conrad’s "Heart of Darkness" is loosely based on Casement.
In 1906 he was sent to Brazil and was promoted to Consul-General in Rio de Janeiro. While there he investigated conditions in the Peruvian rubber plantations and the treatment of the indigenous Amazonian Indians by the Peruvian Amazon Company. In a report to the British foreign secretary, dated 17 March, 1911, Casement detailed the rubber company's use of stocks to punish the Indians: Men, women, and children were confined in them for days, weeks, and often months. ... Whole families ... were imprisoned -fathers, mothers, and children, and many cases were reported of parents dying thus, either from starvation or from wounds caused by flogging, while their offspring were attached alongside of them to watch in misery themselves the dying agonies of their parents.
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