Ota Benga
The Last Slave in America
Story: by Michael Rose
Hard as it is to believe, a 23 year-old African pygmy male was captured in Africa, bought at a slave market and brought to this country in 1903 to be displayed at the St. Louis World's Fair.
Ota Benga's captor, Phillip Vermeer, the grandson of a southern plantation owner, wanted to show the world that blacks were truly inferior. It was a twisted attempt to morally vindicate the Confederacy and promote the "Back to Africa" movement.
What better way than to showcase a pygmy, the lowest form of humanity to Vermeer, and demonstrate once and for all the superiority of the white race over this near animal from the jungle.
On display next to Ota was another unfortunate victim of America's racism, Geronimo. Ota and Geronimo bonded when they were taken on a nighttime Ferris Wheel ride by malicious guards who hoped to scare the "savages."
Vermeer became a sought after lecturer who regaled his audiences with tales of hunting down the wild pygmy while he pressed his case for the removal of America's blacks.
The Fairgoers gawked and pointed at the curious little fellow whose differences and inability to communicate seemed to lend credibility to Vermeer. When a concerned citizen asked the Fair's manager to give the little guy a blanket to ward off the evening chill, he balked, saying that he didn't want to upset the natural order of things.
When the Fair closed, Vermeer was stuck with his pygmy. But he had met a lot of influential people while on the lecture circuit. He eventually found a home for Ota. The Monkey House of the Bronx Zoo was readied to become Ota's new cage.
New York's black community rose up in protest and got organized. They hit the streets with pickets and speeches found lawyers and secured Ota a day in court . There were still some who remembered slavery first-hand. Some had worked on the Underground Railway spiriting scared runaway slaves to safety. They were not going to let a latter- day Southern aristocrat put one of them in a cage.
Ota learned enough English to aid in his defense and proved to the court that indeed he was a man not a beast. Vermeer was vanquished and Ota was freed. He lived out the rest of his days on one of his supporter's farms teaching children the ways of the forest. Unfortunately, the trauma of learning that he’d never go home again was too much. He committed suicide.
This story lends itself to a three-act treatment with natural geographical act breaks; Africa, St. Louis and New York. The characters are dynamic and rich. It is full of adventure, pathos and the drama of misguided human desires. It is a story that is both shocking and timely. While it takes place in turn-of-the-century America, the issues it raises are still with us today.
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