In 1904, Ota Benga, a young Congolese 'pygmy' - a person of petite stature - arrived from central Africa and was featured in an anthropology exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair. Two years later, the New York Zoological Gardens displayed him in its Monkey House, caging the slight 103-pound, 4-foot 11-inch tall man with an orangutan. Pamela Newkirk explores the circumstances of Ota Benga's captivity, the international controversy it inspired, and his efforts to adjust to American life.

"Describes the cruelty and prevalent racial prejudice in early-twentieth-century America that resulted in a Congolese man being featured in an exhibit in the 1904 World's Fair and then displayed in the Monkey House of a New York zoo,"--Amazon.com.