David Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813, in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland, the second of seven children to devout parents Neil Livingstone, a tea salesman and Sunday school teacher, and Agnes Hunter. Growing up in poverty, he began working 14-hour days in a cotton mill at age 10, an experience that instilled resilience and empathy for the working class. Self-taught through voracious reading on science, theology, and exploration, Livingstone studied medicine and chemistry at Anderson’s University in Glasgow starting in 1836. He qualified as a physician in 1840 and was ordained as a Congregational minister the same year, inspired by missionary calls to blend faith with practical skills.
Joining the London Missionary Society in 1838, Livingstone initially aimed for China but redirected to Africa after meeting Robert Moffat in 1840. He arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1841 and established missions at Mabotsa (1843) and Kolobeng (1845), where he converted Chief Sechele of the Kwena people in 1849—though Sechele’s faith later wavered. Livingstone’s philosophy, encapsulated in his motto “Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization,” sought to combat the slave trade through evangelism, trade routes, and education. He resigned from the Society in 1857 amid tensions over his trade-focused visions.
Livingstone’s expeditions transformed European knowledge of Africa. In 1849, he crossed the Kalahari Desert to reach Lake Ngami. From 1852 to 1856, he traversed the continent from coast to coast, becoming the first European to view Victoria Falls in 1855, which he named after Queen Victoria. His 1858–1864 Zambezi expedition, as British consul, explored the river for navigation but revealed impassable rapids; it also surveyed Lake Nyasa (Malawi). In his final quest (1866–1873) to trace the Nile’s source, he documented Lakes Malawi, Bangweulu, and Tanganyika, and the Lualaba River (later linked to the Congo), mapping vast uncharted territories despite failing to pinpoint the Nile’s origin.
A tireless anti-slavery campaigner, Livingstone exposed the brutal East African slave trade in his writings, estimating that fewer than one in five captives survived the journey. Books like *Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa* (1857) galvanized British abolitionism and inspired missions such as the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (1860). Honored with the Royal Geographical Society’s Patron’s Medal (1855) and election to the Royal Society, his work promoted legitimate trade as a slavery antidote and advanced geographical science.
On January 9, 1845, Livingstone married Mary Moffat, daughter of his mentor Robert Moffat; they had six children, though one died young, and separations strained their bond due to his travels. Mary succumbed to malaria in 1862 during the Zambezi expedition. Livingstone mourned his family’s losses, including son Robert in the American Civil War and Thomas from disease in Egypt.
Exhausted by dysentery and malaria, Livingstone died on May 1, 1873, at age 60, in Chief Chitambo’s village near Lake Bangweulu, present-day Zambia. His heart was buried locally, while his body was returned to Britain for interment in Westminster Abbey on April 18, 1874. Revered as a Victorian icon, Livingstone’s legacy endures in anti-slavery movements, African exploration, and missionary zeal during the “Scramble for Africa.” Memorials include his birthplace museum in Blantyre, statues at Victoria Falls, and the city of Livingstone in Zambia. Ranked among Britain’s 100 Greatest Britons in 2002, he symbolizes humanitarian exploration, though critiqued for occasional reliance on slave traders and inflated claims.