David Livingstone Biography
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley on 10 November 1871 gave rise to the popular quotation "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Perhaps one of the most popular national heroes of the late 19th century in Victorian Britain, Livingstone had a mythic status, which operated on a number of interconnected levels: Protestant missionary martyr, working-class "rags to riches" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of commercial empire. His fame as an explorer helped drive forward the obsession with discovering the sources of the River Nile that formed the culmination of the classic period of European geographical discovery and colonial penetration of the African continent.
At the same time his missionary travels, "disappearance" and death in Africa, and subsequent glorification as posthumous national hero in 1874 led to the founding of several major central African Christian missionary initiatives carried forward in the era of the European "Scramble for Africa". Source: Wikipedia
Biography Snapshot
- Name:
- David Livingstone
- Nationality:
- United Kingdom
- Profession:
- Missionary, Physician
- Ethnicity:
- British diaspora in Africa, Scottish people
- Religion:
- Congregational church
- Date of Birth:
- March 19, 1813
- Astrological Sign:
- Pisces
- Date of Death:
- May 1, 1873
- Age at Death:
- 60
- Cause of Death:
- Malaria, Dysentery
Marriages
David Livingstone Timeline
Cite this page
APA Style
David Livingstone. (2023). The HistoryHop.com website. Retrieved 8:22pm UTC, Mar 30, 2023, from historyhop.com/famous-people/david-livingstone/bio.
Harvard Style
David Livingstone. [Internet]. 2023. The HistoryHop.com website. Available from: historyhop.com/famous-people/david-livingstone/bio [Accessed 30 Mar 2023].
MLA Style
"David Livingstone." Bio. The HistoryHop.com website, 2023. Web. 30 Mar 2023.
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