2024/081: Black England: A Forgotten Georgian History — Gretchen Gerzina

While [Granville Sharp] and others were fighting to resolve the issue of freedom for British slaves, the American colonists adopted similar rhetoric to agitate for white colonists’ freedom from England. [loc. 2957]

Black England was sparked by a London bookseller who told Gerzina ‘Madam, there were no black people in England before 1945’: a falsehood which Gerzina explores in this account of Black people, history and culture in Britain. There's been a continuous Black presence in the UK since the 16th century, and by the 18th century there were over 20,000 Black people living in Britain: some were slaves, but others were free.

Gerzina examines aspects of Black life in England, from the entertainers and translators in Elizabethan London to the hypocrisies of the slave trade -- a trade that was condemned by many Britons. "From Yarmouth to Penrith, from Newcastle to Leeds to Cardiff, from cities to small villages, British citizens signed petitions and implored their government to stop trading in human lives." [loc. 3967] There's a thorough examination of how the British class system intersected with notions of race: "Black footmen might and did marry white serving maids without eyebrows being raised, but anyone marrying his cook, of whatever colour, committed a different, and far worse, sort of social transgression." [loc. 1701] Gerzina argues that there was generally less prejudice against Black people in Britain than in America (though still too much) and examines the 'myth' that Black slaves would become free as soon as they set foot on British soil. And even the most well-meaning and philanthropic individuals, Black as well as white, were prone to double standards and snap judgements.

I learnt a lot from this book, not least the history of the Sierra Leone Colony, which was founded as a settlement for freed slaves, but foundered due to mismanagement, delays, disease and conflict with local tribes. And I am inspired by the work of those who fought, with their time and their money and their energy, for the abolition of the slave trade.

First published in 1995, this updated edition has an impassioned foreword by Zadie Smith, and a Note from the author, written in 2022, that highlights some of the changes since the 1990s: research methods have changed, but so has society. Black Lives Matter, better racial representation in media, and international political movements. "This is still a past that deserves to be remembered."