A contemporary obituary quotes a statement made by Du Chaillu referring to "the United States, my country by adoption, and ... France, my native land.

Clodd mentioned New York as another claimed location, but asserted that Du Chaillu's true birthplace was the French Indian Ocean island territory of Île Bourbon (now called Réunion).

Bucher argued that Du Chaillu, as a member of the European scientific community, would have tried to obfuscate or conceal the family history that would have labeled him a quadroon.

In the 19th century atmosphere of scientific racism, great apes and Sub-Saharan Africans were often considered to both have small cranial capacity, and thus be innately unable to achieve civilization; Du Chaillu's credibility as a scientist and explorer would have suffered as a result.

[7] In his youth, he accompanied his father, a French trader in the employment of a Parisian firm, to the west coast of Africa where, at a station on the Gabon, he was educated by missionaries and acquired an interest in and knowledge of the country, its natural history, its natives, and their languages before emigrating to the U.S. in 1852.

Although there were initial challenges of his accounts, they came to be accepted, although Encyclopædia Britannica speculated that "possibly some of the adventures he described as happening to himself were reproductions of the hunting stories of natives.

He was the first person to scientifically describe the giant otter shrew (Potamogale velox), taking precedence over John Edward Gray's description of the same animal as a mouse instead.

After some years' residence in America, during which he wrote several books for the young based on his African adventures, Du Chaillu turned his attention to northern Europe.

This scholarly work demonstrates what is now generally recognized, the importance of the Norse, including Norway, Sweden, and Denmark to the cultural dimension and transformation of British Isles during the fifth to eleventh centuries.