Africa, especially in reference to sub-Saharan or Black Africa, became notoriously dabbed the "Benighted Continent," "Benighted Land," or the "Dark Continent." It was regarded as quite an impenetrable, mysterious, underdeveloped, inadequately explored, remote from the rest of the world, bountiful in vegetation and wild animals, and sparsely inhabited. The African inhabitants were largely of a dark hue, they were labeled as poorly enlightened and progressive; they were the most significant victims of slavery and the slave trade. Central Africa was rendered even the more dark, given that it took centuries longer for the region to be visited and encroached upon by the biblical missionary, the trader, the intellectual, the anthropologist, and the spit-fire weapon. Though Africa bore the brunt of the term, even South America was, albeit briefly, called the "Dark Continent." The term was also used as a concept such as applied to arid or frigid zones, and even to inadequately charted areas of study.

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"While speaking to Apoko, I did not fail to remind him, that the law of God forbids this fearful practice; and that they were under great error, in supposing that the persons sacrificed would attend on the deceased relative of the King, in some other state of existence.
These poor victims were allowed to lie naked and exposed in the streets, until they began to decompose; and such is the callous state of mind in which the people live, that many were walking about, among the putrefying bodies, smoking their pipes, with amazing indifference. (54)
Freeman, Thomas B. Journal of Various Visits to the Kingdoms of Ashanti, Aku, and Dahomi, in Western Africa. London: John Mason, 1844."

"Even when a human head is desired to be preserved, the brains are extracted through the spinal connexion and the head held on the end of a stick in the smoke till it becomes quite hard and dry. I have seen some thousands preserved in this way in Dahomey. (159)
Duncan, John. Travels in Western Africa in 1845 and 1846, Volume 2. London: Richard Bentley, 1847."

"Cruelty and oppression were everywhere, as they still are. It is not easy for us to conceive how a living man can be moulded to the unhesitating submission in which a negro subject lives, so that it should be to him a satisfaction to live and die, or suffer or rejoice, just as his sovereign wills. It can be accounted for only from the prevalence and the desolating fury of wars, which rendered perfect uniformity of will and movement indispensable for existence. It is not so easy to offer any probable reason for the eagerness to share in cruelty which glows in a negro's bosom. Its appalling character consisted rather in the amount of bloodshed which gratified the negro, than in the studious prolongation of pain. He offers in this respect a contrast to the cold, demoniac vengeance of the North American Indian. Superstition probably excused or justified to him some of his worst practices. Human sacrifices have been common everywhere. There was no scruple at cruelty when it was convenient. The mouths of the victims were gagged by knives run through their cheeks; and captives among the southern tribes were beaten with clubs in order to prevent resistance, or "to take away their strength," as the natives expressed it, that they might be more easily hurried to the "hill of death," or authorized place of execution. (51-52)
Foote, Andrew H. Africa and the American Flag, Volume 1. New York: Appleton and Company, 1854."

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