Don't Call Me Lady

Book excerpt: This biography tells the true story of one of history's forgotten women, a Englishwoman named Alice Seeley Harris who has also been called the Mother of Human Rights. She has been hidden by her husband's shadow since she started her African journey near the end of the Victorian era, but now her story is brought to light by author Judy Pollard Smith in Don't Call Me Lady: The Journey of Lady Alice Seeley Harris. Armed with her Bible, zeal, and a camera, Harris arrived in the steaming African jungle of Congo and documented the worst atrocities known to humanity. She captured enough evidence on her glass lantern slides to bring down the Belgian King Leopold, who ruled the colony of the Congo Free State. In this biography, Smith uses imagined conversations based on in-depth research to tell Harris's story of her work. She also provides questions that allow her book to be used in classes or discussion groups. The world gave credit to the men in this story, but Smith provides evidence that it was the young, English missionary and photographer whose bravery truly changed history.