Many knew of the slave system in King Leopold’s Congo rubber plantations– but British Consul Roger Casement was the first to make the world take notice. He created the 20th century's first international human rights movement, and was knighted for his work. Two years later, he was hung for treason, after an abortive plot to enlist German aid for Ireland’s Easter Rising. A widely-popular clemency movement had collapsed when Britain secretly circulated private diaries alleged to be Casement’s. Shocking if true, the diaries are still a matter of passionate contention, a century after Casement’s death.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Homosexuality as a capital crime in 19th-century Britain
An account of the two unfortunate men who were the last to be executed in Britain for the crime of homosexuality. Roger Casement was executed for treason, but a good case can be made that his life would have been spared had he not been gay.
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