Description

A powerful history of the forgotten lives of black Georgian Britain

Georgian England had a large and distinctive black community Yet all of them prosperous citizens or newly freed slaves ran the risk of kidnap and sale to plantations Their dramatic often moving story is told in this audiobook

The idea that Britain became a mixedrace country after 1945 is a common mistake Even in Shakespeares England black people were numerous enough for Queen Elizabeth to demand their expulsion She was perhaps the first to fear that whites would lose their jobs yet her order was ignored without ill effects

By the eighteenth century black people could be found in clubs and pubs there were churches for black people blackonly balls and organisations for helping black people who were out of work or in trouble Many of them were famous and respected most notably Francis Barber Doctor Johnsons esteemed manservant and legatee George Bridgetower a concert violinist who knew Beethoven Ignatius Sancho a correspondent of Laurence Sterne and Francis Williams a Cambridge scholar But many more were illpaid illtreated servants or beggars some resorting to prostitution or theft And alongside the free world there was slavery from which many of these black Britons escaped The triumphs and tortures of black England the ambivalent relations between the races sometimes tragic sometimes heartwarming are brought to life in this wellresearched and wonderfully listenable account

The black population of Georgian England had been completely ignored until this audiobook changed the conversation clearing the way for a new kind of history based on the experiences of ordinary people rather than the ruling classes

P 2022 Hodder amp Stoughton Limited