Kassongo

Kassongo Lutela (born c. 1887 in the Congo Free State; died September 19, 1902 in Birmingham) was a captive African brought to the United States for public exhibition.

In 1895 Samuel Phillips Verner, then 22, answered an advertisement for a white missionary to accompany the American Presbyterian Congo Mission. He arrived at his station in Luebo in September 1896, but in the spring of 1897 abandoned his managerial duties to seek treasure and renown in the interior. The July return from his unsuccessful foray south met disaster when one of the two canoes was attacked by Lele people into whose territory they had trespassed. Verner suffered a mental breakdown. In late 1897 or 1898, shortly before he was recalled, Verner purchased Kassongo and another man, Kondola, from slave traders active in the Upper Congo River area.

Kassongo was trampled to death during a mass stampede from the crowded Greater Shiloh Baptist Church prior to Booker T. Washington's scheduled address to the 1902 National Baptist Convention.

References

• "More Than One Hundred Negroes Crushed to Death as a Result of a Panic Following a Cry of 'Fire.'" (September 20, 1902) The Birmingham News, pp. 1, 7
• Verner, Samuel Phillips (1903) Pioneering in Central Africa. Richmond, Virginia: Presbyterian Committee of Publication.