John H. (John Hobbis) Harris

Born in 1874, John Hobbis Harris was an English missionary, anti-slavery campaigner, and later a Liberal politician. He worked in the Congo with his wife, Alice Seeley Harris, and became widely known for helping expose atrocities in the Congo Free State. That direct experience shaped the books and pamphlets he wrote, which often focused on slavery, colonial violence, and the fight for reform.

Harris was not only a public campaigner but also a practical writer. His work drew on observation, reporting, and advocacy, giving readers a vivid sense of the human cost of exploitation in Africa. For audiobook listeners, his writing is especially interesting as a record of a period when eyewitness testimony and public pressure could influence international opinion.

He died in 1940. Today, he is remembered less as a literary stylist than as a writer whose books were closely tied to a larger humanitarian cause, making them valuable both as historical documents and as part of the story of early twentieth-century reform.