The presence and history of black people in Britain, going back centuries, has been obscured, forgotten and misunderstood. This book, which expands upon the Radio 4 series of the same name, uses new archival discoveries and fresh scholarly interpretations to recover the stories of some of the black individuals, groups and communities whose lives in England were shaped and restricted by slavery and racism during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In eighteen chapters by different contributors, readers encounter black figures from the past who span the social and economic spectrum from dom ... More

The presence and history of black people in Britain, going back centuries, has been obscured, forgotten and misunderstood. This book, which expands upon the Radio 4 series of the same name, uses new archival discoveries and fresh scholarly interpretations to recover the stories of some of the black individuals, groups and communities whose lives in England were shaped and restricted by slavery and racism during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In eighteen chapters by different contributors, readers encounter black figures from the past who span the social and economic spectrum from domestic servants, actors, and mariners to those who enjoyed wealth, privilege and, in rare cases, power. In addition to investigating how black people of this era navigated the complex dynamics of white households and larger white British society, connections—economic and personal—to colonial slavery and the slave trade in America and the Caribbean are threaded throughout the book. In addition to scholarly work, many chapters examine how the lives of some of these black figures are being newly explored and interpreted in non-academic mediums such as television, film, fiction, art, and performance. Current events—including the Grenfell Towers fire and the Windrush immigration scandal—underscore the importance of recognizing Britain’s multiracial past and this book urges continued study of a historical black presence to better understand the past and affirm an expanded notion of Britishness.