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Birth and young age
Henry Stanley Sir Henry Morton Stanley, born John Rowlands in Denbigh wales. When Stanley was born in Denbigh,Wales, his mother,Elizabeth Parry,was 19 years old. He never knew his father, a few weeks of after his birth. There is some doubt about his true parentage. His parents were also unmarried so his birth certificate described him badly wich he had to deal with all his life. He was brought up by his until the age of five. When his guardian died he was sent to a workhouse for the poor. -
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Henry Stanley's life
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Childhood problems
It is said that he was abused by the head master of the workhouse. When he was ten, his mother and two siblings stayed for a short while in this workhouse, but Stanley did not recognize them until told by the master about their identities.He stayed until the age of 15. After completing an elementary education, he was employed as a pupil teacher in a National School. -
Search for a new life
At the age of 18, he made his passage to the United States in search of a new life. He went to in New Orleans. He befriended a wealthy trader named Henry Hope Stanley, by accident: he saw Stanley sitting his store and asked him if he had any job opening for a person such as himself. The childless man also wanted a son so he did not only give him a job but they had a close relationship. Later, he would write that his adoptive parent had died only two years after their meeting, but he died in 1879 -
Participation
In any case, young Stanley assumed a local accent and began to deny being a foreigner. Stanley also participated in the American Civil War, first joining the Confederate Army and fighting in the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. After being taken prisoner he was recruited at Camp Douglas, Illinois by its commander, Col. James A. Mulligan, as a "Galvanized Yankee" and joined the Union Army on 4 June 1862, but was discharged 18 days later due to severe illness. -
More Participation
Recovering, he served on several merchant ships before joining the Navy in July 1864. On board the Minnesota he became a record keeper, which led to freelance journalism. -
Looking for greater adventures
Stanley and a junior colleague jumped ship on 10 February 1865 in New Hampshire,in search of greater adventures. Stanley thus became possibly the only man to serve in the Confederate Army, the Union Army,and the Union Navy. Following the Civil War,he began a career as a journalist. As part of this new career,he organised an expedition to the Ottoman Empire that ended catastrophically when Stanley was imprisoned. He eventually talked his way out of jail and recieved restitution for damaged eqip. -
Journist career
Stanley was recruited by Colonel Samuel Forster Tappan(a one-time journalist) of the Indian Peace Commission, to serve as a correspondent to cover the work of the Commission for several newspapers. Stanley was soon retained exclusively by James Gordon Bennett, founder of the New York Herald,who was impressed by Stanley's exploits and by his direct style of writing. He describes this early period of his professional life in Volume I of his book My Early Travels and Adventures in America and Asia. -
New Search
in 1869, was instructed by Bennett's son to find the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone, who was known to be in Africa but had not been heard from for some time. According to Stanley's account, he asked James Gordon Bennett, Jr. how much he could spend. The reply was "Draw £1,000 now, and when you have gone through that, draw another £1,000, and when that is spent, draw another £1,000,and so on — BUT FIND LIVINGSTONE!" -
Finding Livingstone
Stanley travelled to Zanzibar in March 1871 and outfitted an expedition with the best of everything, requiring no fewer than 200 porters. This 700-mi (1100-km) expedition through the tropical forest became a nightmare.