WaPo: How U.S. institutions took an African teen’s life, then lost his remains
“His name was Sturmann Yanghis. He was a 17-year-old South African brought by ship to the United States in 1860 with four other young men billed in the press as ‘wild African savages’ who had ‘never before been brought into contact with civilization.’ Each represented a different Indigenous group.
… The show, however, was largely a lie. The five men were not wild savages but laborers, most of them from the bustling city of Port Elizabeth, according to one South African newspaper.”
Sally H. Jacobs, “How U.S. institutions took an African teen’s life, then lost his remains,” Washington Post, December 3, 2023.