Welcome to CongoFreeState.com, a website for research and understanding of the Congo Free State and transnational Congo reform movement.

This website aims to offer an extensive collection of resources for academics, students, and history enthusiasts alike. Access curated lists of primary and secondary sources, and engage with original articles contributed by experts researching the Congo Free State and the global reform movement it inspired.

Whether you’re researching colonial history, imperialism, humanitarian and human rights movements, or global economic systems, CongoFreeState.com is your first stop to broadening your knowledge on one of the darkest chapters in European colonial history.

This website was created by Dr Dean Clay, who is currently Honorary Research Fellow at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation.

I have previously taught at the University of Hull, Newcastle University, University of Northumbria, and Liverpool John Moores University. My research interests are in the field of US activism, particularly on movements and organisations whose activities transcend national boundaries, with a specific focus on how activists coordinate and the impact of their activism on government domestic and foreign policy.

I have published several articles in leading academic journals and in the media on the subject of the Congo Free State and reform movement, including:

“‘A Clash of Titans’: Big Business and the Congo Reform Movement” (History: The Journal of the Historical Association)

“The Open Sore of America: Race and the American Congo Reform Movement, 1885–1908” (Journal of American Studies)

“David vs. Goliath: The Congo Free State Propaganda War” (The International History Review)

“Transnational Dimensions of the Congo Reform Movement” (English Studies in Africa)

If you have any queries, please contact me at congofreestate@gmail.com.

Social media:

Bluesky – @drdeanclay.bsky.social

Header image: CC – Wikimedia, Source: The Congo and the founding of its free state; a story of work and exploration (1885), Henry Morton Stanley.