Sheppard was ordained in 1888 and served as pastor at a church in
Atlanta, but did not adapt well to the life of an urban black in a heavily segregated area of the
Southern United States. After two years of writing to the Presbyterian Foreign Missionary Board in
Baltimore, inquiring about starting a mission in Africa. Frustrated by the vague rationale in the rejection letters he received, Sheppard took a train to Baltimore, where he asked the chairman in person and was politely told that the board would not send a black man to Africa without a white supervisor. Samuel Lapsley, an eager but inexperienced white man from a wealthy family, intervened to offer his support, enabling Sheppard's journey to Africa. They "inaugurated the unique principle of sending out together, with equal ecclesiastical rights and, as far as possible, in equal numbers, white and colored workers".
Mission with Lapsley Sheppard and Lapsley's activities in Africa were enabled by the very man whose atrocities Sheppard would later attempt to expose. The pair traveled to
London in 1890 en route to the Congo. While there, Lapsley met General
Henry Shelton Sanford, an American ally of
King Leopold II and friend of a friend of Lapsley's father. Sanford promised to do "everything in his power" to help the pair, even arranging an audience with King Leopold when Lapsley visited him in
Belgium. Neither the secular Sanford nor the
Catholic Leopold were interested in the
Presbyterians' work. Leopold was eager to make inroads into his newly acquired territory, both to begin the process of "civilizing" the natives and to legitimize his rule. The missionaries were, however, oblivious of Leopold's motives. The pair made their way to
Leopoldville, and Sheppard's own writings as well as Lapsley's letters home suggest Sheppard viewed the natives in a markedly different manner from other foreigners. Sheppard was considered as foreign as Lapsley and even acquired the nickname "Mundele N'dom", or "black white man". Despite being of African descent, Sheppard believed in many of the stereotypes of the time regarding Africa and its inhabitants, such as the idea that African natives were uncivilized or savage. Very quickly though his views changed, as exemplified by a journal entry: The natives' resistance to conversion bothered Lapsley more than Sheppard, as Sheppard viewed himself more as an explorer than a missionary. While Lapsley was on a trip to visit fellow missionary–explorer
George Grenfell, Sheppard became familiar with the natives' hunting techniques and languages. He even helped to avert a
famine by slaying 36
hippos. Sheppard contracted malaria 22 times in his first two years in Africa.
Contact with the Kuba Sheppard became versed in the
Kuba language and culture. In 1892, he took a team of men to the edge of the
Kuba Kingdom. He originally planned to ask for directions to the next village under the guise of purchasing supplies, but the chief of the village only allowed one of his men to go. Sheppard used a variety of tricks to make his way further into the kingdom, including having a scout follow a group of traders and, most famously, eating so many eggs that the townspeople could no longer supply him and his scout was able to gain access to the next village to find more eggs. Eventually, however, he encountered villagers that would allow him to go no further. While Sheppard was formulating a plan, the king's son, Prince N'toinzide, arrived and arrested Sheppard and his men for trespassing. King Kot aMweeky, rather than executing Sheppard, told the village that Sheppard was his deceased son. King aMweeky declared Sheppard "Bope Mekabe", which spared the lives of Sheppard and his men. This was a political move on the part of the king; in danger of being overthrown, he encouraged interest in the strangers to direct attention away from himself. He would be unable to do so for several years, however, by which time Kot aMweeky had been overthrown by Mishaape, the leader of a rival clan.
Documentation of Congo Free State atrocities In the late 19th century,
King Leopold II started to receive criticism for his treatment of the natives in Congo Free State. In the United States, the main outlet of this criticism was the Presbyterian church. In 1891, Sheppard became involved with
William Morrison after Lapsley's death. They would report the crimes they saw, and later, with the help of
Roger Casement, would form the
Congo Reform Association (CRA), one of the world's first humanitarian organizations. In January 1900,
The New York Times published a report that said 14 villages had been burned and 90 or more of the local people killed in the
Bena Kamba country by
Zappo Zap warriors sent to collect taxes by the
Congo Free State administration. The report was based on letters from Southern Presbyterian missionaries Rev. L. C. Vass and Rev. H. P. Hawkins stationed at
Luebo and the subsequent investigation by Sheppard who visited the Zappo Zaps' camp. Apparently taken for a government official, he was openly shown the bodies of many of the victims. Sheppard saw evidence of
cannibalism. He counted 81 right hands that had been cut off and were being dried before being taken to show the State officers what the Zappo Zaps had achieved. He also found 60 women confined in a pen. Sheppard documented his findings using a
Kodak camera, taking a picture of three mutilated men and one of the captive women. The massacre caused an uproar against Dufour and the Congo Free State itself. When
Mark Twain published his ''
King Leopold's Soliloquy'' five years later, he mentioned Sheppard by name and referred to his account of the massacre. In January 1908, Sheppard published a report on colonial abuses in the American Presbyterian Congo Mission (APCM) newsletter, and both he and Morrison were sued for libel against the Kasai Rubber Company (Compagnie de Kasai), a
Belgian rubber contractor in the area. The case went to court in September 1909, and the two missionaries were supported by the CRA,
American Progressives, and their lawyer,
Emile Vandervelde, who was a Belgian
socialist. The judge acquitted Sheppard on the premise that his editorial had not named the major company, but smaller charter companies instead. However, it is likely that the case was decided in favor of Sheppard as a result of international politics; the U.S., socially supportive of missionaries, had questioned the validity of King Leopold II's rule in the Congo. Morrison had been acquitted earlier on a technicality. Sheppard's reports often portrayed actions by the state that broke laws set by the European nations. Many of the documented cases of cruelty or violence were in direct violation of the
Berlin Act of 1885, which gave Leopold II control over the Congo as long as he "care[d] for the improvements of their conditions of their moral and material well-being" and "help[ed] in suppressing slavery." ==Louisville==