From a column in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. (Deja Vu by Cynthia Crossen, Feb. 6, 2006, B1)

For a few yards of cloth and some salt, Samuel Verner, an American missionary and explorer, bought a young man named Ota Benga in the Belgian Congo in 1903. Ota Benga was a Pygmy who had been enslaved by another tribe. Mr. Verner was working under a contract to the St. Louis World's Fair. He was supposed to bring several Pygmies to America for a living display of the stages of evolution, and then return them to Africa.

Three years later, with the World's Fair over and Mr. Verner in financial straits, Ota Benga was placed in a new home: the monkey house at the Bronx Zoo.

The story of Ota Benga is a sad and maddening example of the kinds of blunders that occurred at a time when the theory of Darwinism was rationalizing the evolution of humanity. To the thousands of spectators in St. Louis in the summer of 1904, the Department of Anthropology's exhibits of Pygmies, American Indians, Filipinos and Asians living in reconstructed huts and villages seemed to prove that man had indeed ascended from savages to masters of civilization.

The "guests" as the men, women and children on display were euphemistically called probably weren't so impressed: The Americans had a penchant for stealing pieces of the exhibits, and they also threw lighted cigars and other unwanted items into the displays. When teh chilly days of autumn arrived, the Pygmies weren't permitted to wear warm clothes becaues that wouldn't have been authentic.

At the conclusion of the World's Fair, Mr. Verner, as promised, returned the Pygmies to their African villages. But Ota Benga's home had been destroyed and his family was dead. He decided to throw in his lot with Mr. Verner who was shipping a cargo of African collectibles - including chimpanzees, snakes, beetles and sculpted ivory - back to the U.S. for sale to museums and zoos.

Unable to make a quick deal, and in such financial difficulty that he began writing bad checks, Mr. Verner asked the American Museum of Natural History in New York to store his collection while he looked for a buyer. He also asked the museum to house Ota Benga, who was ill equipped to fend for himself in the U.S.

Ota Benga lived at the museum for a few weeks, but he soon became restless and tried to leave. No longer wanting the responsibility of overseeing him, museum officials offered Ota Benga to the Bronx Zoological Park, whose director, William Hornaday, recognized a unique business opportunity.

At first, Ota Benga was permitted to walk around the park's grounds freely. Soon, however, he was locked in a cage in the monkey house, often in the company of an orangutan named Dohong. Bones were scattered around the cage to make Ota Benga's sharpened teeth seem more savage. "To a generation raised on talk of that absentee star of evolution, the missing link, the point of Dohong and Ota disporting in the monkey house was obvious," wrote Mr. Verner's grandson, Phillips Verner Bradford, and Harvey Blume in their 1992 book, "Ota: The Pygmy in the Zoo."

Thousands of spectators flocked to the exhibit on the first weekend, and the New York Times reported that "the joint man-and-monkey exhibition was the most interesting in Bronx Park." While the spectacle provided plenty of laughs, the Times added, "it is probably a good thing that Benga doesn't think very deeply...If he did it isn't likely that he was very proud of himself when he woke in the morning and found himself under the same roof with the orangutans and monkeys."

The Colored Baptist Ministers' Conference, among others, quickly denounced the "degrading exhibition." "Our race is depressed enough," said the Rev. James Gordon, "without exhibiting one of us with the apes. We think we are worthy of being considered human beings with souls." Gordon also objected to the exhibit as a demonstration of Darwinism. "The Darwinian theory is absolutely opposed to Christianity," he said.

Mr. Hornaday, the park's director, vehemently defended the exhibit. "We are taking excellent care of the little fellow," he said. "He has one of the best rooms in the primate house." And the Times opined, "It is absurd to moan over the imagined humiliation and degradation he is suffering... The idea that men are all much alike except as they have had or lacked opportunities for getting an education out of books is now far out of date."

But the controversy didn't die down, and Ota Benga, then in his mid-20's, soon decided to leave the zoo, spending the next few years at orphanges for black children in New York. In 1910, he moved to a Baptist seminary in Lynchburg, Va., where he did odd jobs as well as hunted and fished. His sharpened teeth were capped, and he changed his name to Otto Bingo.

Six years later, in March 1916, Ota Benga used a stolen revolver to kill himself.

In an article in the Lynchburg News, Mr. Hornaday was quoted as saying he wasn't surprised by Ota Benga's suicide. "Evidently," Mr. Hornaday said, "he felt that he would rather die than work for a living."

From Creation Research Quarterly Journal:

The incident clearly reveals the racism of evolutionary theory and the extent that the theory gripped the hearts and minds of scientists and journalists in the late 1800s. As humans move away from this time in history, we can more objectively look back at the horrors that evolutionary theory has brought to society of which this story is a poignant example.

More about Ota Benga's time at the zoo:

Ota was next encouraged to spend as much time as he wanted inside the monkey house. He was even given a bow and arrow and was encouraged to shoot it is part of "an exhibit." Ota was soon locked in his enclosure-and when he was let out of the monkey house, 'the crowd stayed glued to him- and a keeper stayed close by' (Bradford and Blume, 1992, p. 180). In the meantime, the publicity began-on September 9, the New York Times headline screamed, "bushman shares a cage with the Bronx Park apes." Although the director, Dr. Homaday, insisted thatt he was merely offeringan "intriguing exhibit" for the public's edification, he "apparently saw no difference between a wild beast and the little Black man; [and] for the first time in any American zoo, a human being was displayed in a cage. Benga was given cage-mates to keep him company in his captivity-a parrot and an Orangutan named Dohong" (Sifakis, 1984, p. 253).

A contemporary account stated that Ota was "not much taller than an orangutan . . their heads are much alike, and both grin in the same way when pleased" (Bradford and Blume, 1992, p.181). Benga also came over from Africa with a fine young chimpanzee" which Mr. Verner also deposited "in the ape collection at the Primates House" (Hornaday,1906, p. 302). Hornaday's enthusiasm for his new primate exhibit was reflected in an article that he wrote which begins as follows: On September 9, a genuine African Pygmy, belonging to the sub-race commonly miscalled 'the dwarfs'. . .Ota Benga is a well developed little man, with a good head, bright eyes and a pleasing countenance. He is not hairy and is not covered by the 'downy fell' described by some explorers. . . .He is happiest when at work, making something with his hands (1906, p. 301).

The purpose of the exhibit was to show evolution: from ape to sub-human.

That he was on display was indisputable: a sign was posted on the enclosure which said "The African Pygmy, 'Ota Benga." Age 23 years. Height 4 feet 11 inches. Weight 103 pounds. Brought from the Kasai River, Congo Free State, South Central Africa by Dr. Samuel P. Verner. Exhibited each afternoon during September" (New York Times, Sept. 10, 1906, p. 1). And what an exhibit it was.

The orangutan imitated the man. The man imitated the monkey. They hugged, they let go, flopped into each other's arms. Dohong [the orangutan] snatched the woven straw off Ota's head and placed it on his own.... the crowd hooted and applauded...the children squealed with delight. To adults there was a more serious side to the display. Something about the boundary condition of 'being human was exemplified in that cage. Somewhere man shaded into non-human. Perhaps if they look hard enough the moment of transition might be seen.... to a generation raised on talk of that absentee star of evolution, the Missing Link, the point of Dohong and Ota disporting in the monkey house was obvious (Bradford and Blume, 1992, p. 181).

It was also obvious to a New York Times reporter who stated "the pygmy was not much taller than the orangutan, and one had a good opportunity to study their points of resemblance. Their heads are much alike, andd both grin in the same way when pleased" (Sept. 10, 1906, p. 1). That he was made much fun of is also indisputable: he was once, given a pair of shoes which over and over again the crowd laughed at him as he sat in mute admiration of them" (New York Times, Sept. 10, 1906, p.1). Another New York Times article by one of the editors, after studying the situation, penned the following:

Ota Benga ... is a normal specimen of his race or tribe, with a brain as much developed as are those of its other members. Whether they are held to be illustrations of arrested development, and really closer to the anthropoid apes than the other African savages, or whether they are viewed as the degenerate descendants of ordinary negroes, they are of equal interest to the student of ethnology, and can be studied with profit.... As for Benga himself, he is probably enjoying himself as well -as he could anywhere in this country, and it is absurd to make moan over the imagined humiliation and degradation he is suffering. The pygmies are a fairly efficient people in their native forests....but they are very low in the human scale, and the suggestion that Benga should be in a school instead of a cage ignores the high probability that school would be a place of torture to him and one from which he could draw no advantage whatever. The idea that men are all much alike except as they have had or lacked opportunities for getting an education out of books is now far out of date. With training carefully adapted to his mental limitations, this pygmy would doubtless be taught many things. . .but there is no chance that he could learn anything in an ordinary school. (September 11, 1906, p. 6).

So what happened to Ota Benga?

He became a Christian, was baptized, and his English vocabulary rapidly improved. He also learned how to read-and occasionally attended classes at a Lynchburg seminary. He was popular among the boys, and learned several sports such as baseball (at which he did quite well). He later ceased attending classes and became a laborer on the Obery farm for 10 dollars a month plus room and board (Bradford and Blume,1992, p. 204). The school concluded that his lack of education progress was because of his African 'attitude" when actually probably "his age was against his development. It was simply impossible to put him in a class to receive instructions ... that would be of any advantage to him" (Ward, 1992, p. 14). He had enormous curiosity and a drive to learn, but preferred performance tests as opposed to the multiple choice kind.

Every effort was made to help him blend in (even his teeth were capped to help him look more normal), and although he seemingly had adjusted, inwardly he had not. Several events and changes that occurred there caused him to become despondent. He checked on the price of steamship tickets to Africa, and concluded that he would never have enough money to purchase one. He had not heard from Verner in a while, and did not know bow to contact him. Later employed as a laborer in a tobacco factory in Lynchburg, VA, he grew increasingly depressed, hostile, irrational, and forlorn. When people spoke to him, they noticed that he had tears in his eyes when he told them he wanted to go home. Concluding that he would never be able to return to his native land, on March 20, 1916 Benga committed suicide with a revolver (Sanborn, 1916). In Ward's words: "Ota ... removed the caps from his teeth. When his small companions asked him to lead them into the woods again, he turned them away. Once they were safely out of sight, he shot himself . . (1992, p. 14).

More info and still more info on this horrible story.

People talk about the good ole days, but I say they weren't so good for human beings like Ota Benga. The past isn't as good as you think it is.

Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions. Ecclesiastes 7:10