Career
Born in New York City, Henry Downing joined the United States. Navy in Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1864. After the United States Civil War, Downing started on a journey around the world, and reached Liberia, where he lived for three years. On his return to the United States in 1872 he again enlisted in the navy, serving until 1875.
In 1887, Grover Cleveland appointed him consul to Luanda, Angola, but Downing resigned in 1888.
He was a participant in the First Pan-African Conference there in 1900. While in London, Downing published several plays and a novel, The American Cavalryman: A Liberian Romance (1917).
As a playwright in London, Downing took inspiration from the dramatic legacy of Ira Frederick Aldridge and became "probably the first person of African descent to have a play of his or her own written and published in Britain."
Returning to the United States in 1917, Downing lived in New York City during his final years. He died on February 19, 1928, at the Harlem hospital.
Black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux based two films on Downing"s literary work.
Micheaux"s Thirty Years Later (1928) is based on a story/novella by Downing, and the film A Daughter of the Congo (1930) is based on Downing"s The American Cavalryman.
