Jamacian born Fanny Eaton was one of the most influential muses in the Pre-Raphaelite movement and helped challenge the idealised standards of beauty in Victorian society. On the 18th November Google Doodle celebrated Jamaican-British artist muse Fanny Eaton. Eaton modelled throughout the 1860s for a variety of notable English painters in work that helped redefine Victorian standards of beauty and diversity. On this day in 1874, it is recorded that Eaton sat for life classes at the Royal Academy of London, sessions which were integral to the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Fanny Eaton was born Fanny Matilda Antwistle in Surrey, Jamaica on July 13, 1835. She moved with her mother to Britain during the 1840s, towards the beginning of the Victorian Era. In her 20s, she began modelling for portrait painters at the Royal Academy of London, and she soon captured the attention of a secret society of rising young artists called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Eaton made her public debut in Simeon Soloman’s painting The Mother of Moses, which was exhibited in 1860 at the Royal Academy. Over the following decade, she was featured by a variety of prominent Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and Rebecca Soloman. The group held Eaton up as a model of ideal beauty and featured her centrally at a time when Black individuals were significantly underrepresented, and often negatively represented, in Victorian art. Eaton’s modeling career lasted through much of the decade, and Millais’ 1867 work Jephthah is believed to feature her last known appearance in a painting. Thank you Fanny Eaton, for helping move artistic inclusion forward.

Guyanese-British firefighter and social worker Frank Bailey, who is widely considered to be the first Black firefighter of post-war London, paved the way for diversity and inclusion within the fire service. On 26th November, Google Doodle illustrated by West Yorkshire-based guest artist Nicole Miles, celebrated Guyanese-British firefighter and social worker Frank Bailey, who is widely considered the first Black firefighter of post-war London. Among his pioneering accomplishments in the name of diversity and inclusion, Bailey is also credited as one of the first Black social workers specializing in mental health in London’s Kensington and Chelsea borough. Frank Arthur Bailey was born on this day in 1925 in British Guiana (now Guyana), South America. He attended local schools and then took a job on a German trade ship, which brought him to New York. There he found work in a hospital where he staged a walkout in protest of the institution’s separate dining rooms for different types of employees. The subsequent integration of the dining facilities proved just one of Bailey’s many successful challenges to an unequal status quo. Bailey moved to London in 1953 and caught wind that Black people were not being hired by the city’s fire service. Not one to stand idly by in the face of injustice, Bailey applied to join the West Ham Fire Brigade and made history when he was accepted into service. A lifelong advocate for workers’ rights, Bailey became a union branch representative before the repeated denial of promotions pushed him to leave his post in 1965. Bailey then transitioned into social work and became the first Black legal advisor for Black youths at Marylebone Magistrates Court. His daughter Alexis Bailey said: "I’m very proud of my dad. He spent his whole life fighting against injustice and he never gave up. He taught me to challenge things I believe are wrong and stand up for myself and others, even when it scares me." What the artist Nicole Miles had to say? As a Caribbean person living in the UK, it's inspiring and relatable to see how immigrants (especially from my tiny corner of the world) have given so much of themselves to their various adopted homes. With this project, not only was Frank Bailey a Black person living in Britain, he was from Guyana (which is considered culturally Caribbean), and that link was interesting to me among other little connections I discovered when researching him. Happy Birthday, Frank Bailey. Your actions continue to encourage others to never give up in the fight for equality for all.

Black History Month UK 2021 'Black to the Past' campaign - African Romans in Britain By its very design, the Roman Empire was an extremely diverse and multicultural place. Through trade, logistical or military movements, civilian migrations both voluntary and forced, people travelled within an Empire that ruled one-fifth of the ancient global population. Burial remains and tomb inscriptions demonstrate the diversity of Roman Britain. Inscriptions carved into stone to commemorate the dead on tombs, or to record who set up an altar to the gods, show that people came not only from Italy, but also from Gaul, North Africa and Spain; in the later Roman period new troops were recruited from Germany and even from beyond the frontiers of the Empire. The Roman conquest of Britain led to the migration of many soldiers and administrators, merchants and also women and children. Evidence suggests that, over time, these newcomers and the local population intermarried, and that the populations in major urban and military sites were very diverse. In 1901, a group of Roman graves were found by workmen cutting a line for a new railway on Sycamore Terrace. The area was once part of a sprawling cemetery on the fringes of Eboracum, Roman York. One of the richest graves found, was a high status Christian woman buried in a stone coffin with luxury goods including jewellery made from elephant ivory and Whitby jet. For over a century, the female nicknamed the 'Ivory Bangle Lady' was interpreted as an important Christian woman of Roman York, but little consideration was given to her origins. In 2010, a team of archaeologists from the University of Reading re-examined her skeletal remains and their findings challenged assumptions about the diversity of the ancient Roman city. Hella Eckhardt, senior lecturer at the department of archaeology at Reading University, said. "In the case of York, the Roman population may have had more diverse origins than the city has now." Using ancestry assessment, they found that the skeleton of the Ivory Bangle Lady was a young woman aged between 18-23 years with a mixture of 'black' and 'white' ancestral traits. Isotope analysis revealed that she had spent her early years in a warmer climate, while her skull shape suggested she had some North African ancestry. Taken together with the evidence of an unusual burial rite and grave goods, the evidence all pointed to a high-status incomer to Roman York. It seems likely that the Ivory Bangle Lady was of North African descent and may have migrated to York from somewhere warmer, possibly the Mediterranean. The Ivory Bangle Lady had one of the richest graves and was buried with bracelets, earrings, pendants, beads, a blue glass jug, likely to contain cosmetics or perfume, and a glass mirror. The most famous object was a rectangular openwork mount of bone, possibly from an unrecorded wooden casket, which read "Hail, sister, may you live in God," indicating Christian beliefs. All suggesting that she held a high-ranking position within Roman York. Dr Hella Eckardt, Senior Lecturer at the University of Reading, said: "Multi-cultural Britain is not just a phenomenon of more modern times. Analysis of the ‘Ivory Bangle Lady' and others like her, contradicts common popular assumptions about the make up of Roman-British populations as well as the view that African immigrants in Roman Britain were of low status, male and likely to have been slaves." The skeleton and the grave goods of the Ivory Bangle Lady are on display in the Yorkshire Museum.

Black History Month UK 2021 'Black to the Past' campaign - Victorians of African and Caribbean descent in Britain Sarah Bonetta was born Omoba Aina in 1843, in the newly independent city-state of Oke-Odan following the collapse of the Oye Empire (present-day southwestern Nigeria). The empire had been engaged in a war with the Dahomey Kingdom since 1823 after Ghezo, the King of Dahomey, refused to pay annual tributes to the Oye Empire. During the war, the Oyo Kingdom was weakened and destablised by the Islamic jihads launched by its fast growing neighbour - the Sokoto Caliphate (modern day Northern Nigeria) - and by the 1830s it had fragmented into several smaller city states including Oke-Odan. In 1848, the Oke-Odan state was invaded and captured by the army of the Dahomey Kingdom (present day Benin). Aina's parents, Oke-Odan royals, died during the attack and other residents were either killed or sold into the Atlantic slave trade. Aina ended up in the court of King Ghezo in the Dahomey Kingdom as a state prisoner. Two years later in June 1850, she was 'gifted' to Captain Forbes as a present to Queen Victoria. Forbes was a British royal navel captain in the West Africa Squadron (WAS) and was on a diplomatic mission to negotiate with King Ghezo to end Dahomey's participation in the Atlantic slave trade. On her way to England, she was baptised "Sarah" and given the names of Captain Forbes and his ship "The Bonetta," stripping her of her original name Omoba Aina, Yoruba heritage and her Egbado identity. Forbes described her as a "perfect genius" and expressed admiration for her quick learning and talent for music. A few months later, she was taken to Windsor Castle and received by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The queen described Sarah in her journal entry of the 9th November 1850 and day of their first meeting: 'She is 7 years old, sharp & intelligent & speaks English.' The queen paid for Sarah to be educated and raised as her goddaughter in the British middle classes. Captain Forbes and his wife became her guardians and she visited the queen regularly. Later, in 1851, after developing a chronic cough, which at the time was attributed to the cold climate, her guardians sent her to the Church Missionary Society school in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The intention was that Sarah would become a missionary but she returned to England after four years. Despite being deeply unhappy at the missionary school she excelled academically. Upon her return, Queen Victoria arranged for her to be live with the middle-class Schoen family and former missionaries, in Gillingham, Kent. Sarah lived with them for six years before moving to Brighton, against the wishes of the queen, where Victoria arranged for a Miss Welsh to oversee her introduction into British society. Sarah remained in contact with the queen and in January 1862, was invited and attended the wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Alice. At the age of 19, James Pinson Labulo Davies, a Yorubian merchant prominent in missionary circles, expressed an interest in marrying her. Sarah and James were first introduced when Sarah was at the missionary school in Sierra Leone, but hardly knew each other. Sarah described her feelings in a letter to Mrs Schoen: Others would say ‘He is a good man & though you don’t care about him now, will soon learn to love him.’ That, I believe, I never could do. I know that the generality of people would say he is rich & your marrying him would at once make you independent, and I say ‘Am I to barter my peace of mind for money?’ No – never! But the match was considered a suitable one and Sarah was encouraged to accept. Davies was more than a decade older than her and a widower. She initially turned him down, but the Queen approved the match. Sarah would lose her financial independence if she refused, so the marriage went ahead. The couple married on 14th August 1862 in a lavish ceremony at St Nicholls Church in Brighton that was officiated by the Bishop of Sierra Leone. Large crowds gathered to witness the event and it was reported in the newspapers of the day. On her marriage certificate, Sarah gave her first name as ina - perhaps a variant of her African name. Shortly afterwards Sarah and James had a series of photographs taken by Camille Silvy, the celebrity photographer of the day, underlining their status in society. The queen herself may have commissioned them and a few of the images can be found in the National Portriat Gallery. After the wedding, the newlyweds moved to West Africa and Sarah was baptised at a chruch in the town of Badagry, a former slave port. They settled in colonial Lagos where her husband became a member of the Legislative Council from 1872-74 and ran a cocoa business. The couple had three children: Victoria Davies (1863), Arthur Davies (1871) and Stella Davis (1873). Sarah Forbes Bonetta continued to enjoy such a close relationship with Queen Victoria that she and Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther were the only Lagos indigènes the Royal Navy had standing orders to evacuate in the event of an uprising in Lagos Their first daughter Victoria was named after the queen with her blessing. When she was christened the queen sent her a gold cup, salver, knife, fork and spoon. Together with her daughter Victoria, Sarah made a trip back to England in 1867 and the queen fell in love with the five-year-old girl, becoming a godmother to little Victoria as well and paying for her education. Unfortunately, that was the last time Sarah saw the Queen Victoria. She had been sick for several years and in 1880 she died of tuberculosis on the island of Madeira at the age of 37. Sarah’s daughter Victoria, then 17, heard the news of her mother’s death just as she was travelling to Osborne to visit the queen, who reported that ‘my black godchild … was dreadfully upset & distressed.’ The queen paid for Victoria to be educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, and stayed in touch throughout her life. Sarah's remarkable but rarely told story is just one of the many Black Victorians who lived in Britain. In recent years, creatives have sought to breath life into British history by giving a voice to those forgotten Black Britons. Playwright Janice Okoh explores Sarah's story in her play The Gift and actress-singer Cynthia Erivo is set to produce and star in a film about the African princess. Several books have also written about her including the children's book 'Princess Aina: Queen Victoria's Yoruba Godchild' and the historical novel 'Her name was Aina' by Sierra Leonan writer Yemi Lucilda Hunter. In October 2020, artist Hannah Uzor created a portrait of Sarah in her wedding dress. The artwork is on permanent display at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight and was commissioned by English Heritage as part of their effort to recognise UK Black History. A plaque commemorating Sarah Forbes Bonetta was placed on Palm Cottage in 2016, as part of the television series Black and British: A Forgotten History. Sources https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/painting-our-past/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-54445289 Elebute, Adeyemo (2013). The Life of James Pinson Labulo Davies: A Colossus of Victorian Lagos. https://web.archive.org/web/20030508111257/http://www.black-history.org.uk/bonetta.asp https://www.booksthatmatter.co.uk/post/pioneering-black-women-in-history-sarah-forbes-bonetta-national-portrait-gallery-collaboration/

Black History Month UK 2021 'Black to the Past' campaign - African and Caribbean heritage Georgians in Britain William Davidson was born the illegitimate son of the Scottish Attorney General of Jamaica and a local Caribbean woman in 1781. At the age of 14, against his mother’s wishes it is said, he was sent to Glasgow to study law. His time in Scotland coincided with the democratic ferment that followed the French Revolution when, as Lord Cockburn noted: “Everything, not this or that thing, but literally everything, was soaked in this one event.” Agitation for reform was intense in Scotland and would ultimately lead to the infamous trials for sedition and the conviction and transportation of the advocate Thomas Muir of Huntershill. It was no surprise then that it was during his time north of the border that Davidson first he became interested in radical politics. During the repression that followed the trials for sedition, Davidson moved to Liverpool and served three years of an apprenticeship before he was press-ganged into the Royal Navy. After his discharge, he returned to Scotland and his father arranged for him to study mathematics at Aberdeen. But Davidson withdrew from study, moved to Birmingham, and started a cabinet-making business with a legacy from his mother. The failure of this business prompted Davidson to move to London. In London, Davidson married Sarah Lane, a working-class widow with four children and had had two more children with her. He became a Wesleyan Methodist and was incensed by the Peterloo massacre. He returned to radical politics and joined the Marylebone Union Reading Society, a club that offered a reading room of radical newspapers such as the Republican and the Manchester Observer for a subscription of twopence a week. He also read the works of Tom Paine, which had been banned in the 1790s. At the Marlylebone society Davidson met another Jamaican-Scot and Wesleyan radical – Robert Wedderburn – the son of a Scottish plantation owner and an enslaved African woman who had joined the radical Spencean Philanthropists and became famous as a campaigner against slavery. Davidson joined the Spenceans and became embroiled in the Cato Street Conspiracy, an entrapment exercise by government spies, which was opposed by Wedderburn. A police officer was killed by one of the conspirators when the trap was sprung and police raided a hayloft where the men were meeting in Cato Street near Grosvenor Square. Davidson’s presence in the hayloft and possession of a blunderbuss sealed his fate. During proceedings at the Central Criminal Court, William Davidson protested his innocence. It was argued that the evidence of a man named Edwards, an agent provocateur, was unreliable. Edwards seems actually to have instigated the murders, and it was on his evidence that the conspirators were convicted. A number of other witnesses provided statements, including John Davey, who confirmed that Davidson, 'a man of colour', was a cabinet maker. In his defence before the court, Davidson told the jury '...you may suppose that because I am a man of colour I am without any understanding or feeling and would act the brute; I am not one of that sort; when not employed in my business, I have employed myself as a teacher of a Sunday-school...'. The presiding judge responded '...you may rest most perfectly assured that with respect to the colour of your countenance, no prejudice either has or will exist in any part of this Court against you; a man of colour is entitled to British justice as much as the fairest British subject'. Of the eleven conspirators charged, one was freed for testifying for the prosecution, five were transported for life and the remaining five, Davidson among them, were publicly hanged outside Newgate jail on May 1, 1820. They were decapitated and their heads were held aloft with the ancient cry ‘Behold the head of a traitor!’.

Black History Month UK 2022 'Sharing Journeys' campaign - exploring the lives of Britons with West African heritage Quobna Ottobah Cugoano (usually known simply as Ottobah Cugoano) was born in the village of Ajumako (also spelled Agimaque) circa. 1757 on the coast of present-day Ghana. He was a Fanti, as he recounts in his anti-slavery book, “[I was born] at Agimaque, on the coast of Fantyn… in the country of Fantee” and his family was close to the local chief. At the age of 13, he was seized with a group of children and sold into slavery. He later recalled: “[in 1770] I was early snatched away from my native country, with about eighteen or twenty more boys and girls, as were playing in a field. We lived but a few day’s journey from the coast where we were kidnapped... Some of us attempted, in vain, to run away, but pistols and cutlasses were soon introduced, threatening, that if we offered to stir, we should all lie dead on the spot." After several weeks in captivity, Cugoano was eventually brought to a trading post. There, he sees "many of my miserable countrymen chained two and two, some handcuffed," and "several white people, which made me afraid that they would eat me, according to our notion, as children, in the inland parts of the country." Cugoano's African captor sells him for "a gun, a piece of cloth, and some lead," telling the new slave that he must "learn the ways of the browfow, that is, the white-faced people." Cugoano and the other children were transported to Grenada in the Caribbean (then referred to as the Westindies) via the notorious ‘Middle Passage.’ He gives a harrowing account: "We were taken in the ship that came for us, to another that was ready to sail from Cape Coast. When we were put into the ship, we saw several black merchants coming on board, but we were all drove into our holes, and not suffered to speak to any of them. In this situation, we continued several days in sight of our native land.” On board the ship there is "nothing to be heard but the rattling of chains, smacking of whips, and the groans and cries of our fellow-men... The slaves agree that death is "more preferable than life; and a plan was concerted amongst us, that we might burn and blow up the ship, and to perish all together in the flames: but we were betrayed by one of our own country women, who slept with some of the headmen of the ship, for it was common for the filthy dirty sailors to take the African women and lie upon their bodies; but the men were chained and pent up in holes. It was the women and boys which were to burn the ship, with the approbation and groans of the rest; though that was prevented, the discovery was likewise a cruel bloody scene." After enduring the gruelling ‘Middle Passage’, Cugaono and his fellow enslaved Africans were sold to work on sugar plantations. In his autobiography, he writes of the brutality that he and his fellow enslaved Africans had to endure. "Being in this dreadful captivity and horrible slavery, without any hope of deliverance, for about eight or nine months, beholding the most dreadful scenes of misery and cruelty, and seeing my miserable companions often cruelly lashed, and, as it were, cut to pieces, for the most trifling faults; this made me often tremble and weep, but I escaped better than many of them. Describing in detail how enslaved Africans discovered eating sugar cane are “cruelly lashed, or struck over the face, to knock their teeth out." Others have "their teeth pulled out, to deter others, and to prevent them from eating any cane" even before they ever work in the fields. Cugoano worked in a ‘slave-gang’ on plantations in Grenada and other islands for nearly two years in the service of their slave-owner, Alexander Campbell. He was brought to England by his ‘owner’ in late 1772. There is some dispute on how he obtained his freedom, but in his book, Cugoano says he was ‘freed’. It’s probably not a coincidence that this was during the year of the Somerset Case that ruled that any runaway enslaved person couldn’t be forcibly sent back to the colonies to be enslaved and sold again. On 20th August 1773, he was baptised as ‘John Stuart – a Black, aged 16 Years’ at St James Church, Piccadilly. He implies in his own account that the conversion to Christianity had been intended to stop him from being sold into slavery again, though it seems he did later develop a Christian faith that was authentic and meaningful to him. It’s believed that in the intervening years before he was documented entering the domestic service of the Royal artist Richard Cosway in 1784 that he learned to read and write. He wrote: “[I set my mind] to learn reading and writing, which soon became my recreation, pleasure, and delight; and when my master perceived that I could write some, he sent me to a proper school for that purpose to learn.” Cugoano developed close ties within the Afro-British community and befriended Olaudah Equiano and Ignatius Sancho. He became an active member of the Sons of Africa, an abolitionist group campaigning for the end of the Atlantic Slave Trade. In 1786, he played a key role in the case of Henry Demane. Demane was a formerly enslaved Afro-Briton who was employed as a servant of Mr Jeffries of Bedford Street in London. Jeffries somehow duped Harry into going on board a slaver’s ship, where he was held against his will. News of his kidnapping was sent to Cugoano and another Black Abolitionist called William Green. Together they contacted the white abolitionist Granville Sharp to help in the freeing of Demane. Sharp secured a notice to remove Demane from the slaver’s ship, and William Green and the clerk who issued the notice removed him from the ship before it sailed. [Account taken from the Memoirs of Granville Sharp (1820) by Prince Hoare (1775-18340]. Through the Cosways, he came to the attention of leading British political and cultural figures of the time, including the poet William Blake and the Prince of Wales. When in 1787, it’s thought with the help of his friend, Olaudah Equiano, Cugoano published an attack on slavery entitled Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species. He sent copies to King George III, the politician Edmund Burke, and other leading British figures. In it, he called for the abolition of slavery and immediate emancipation of all enslaved people. Unlike his predecessors, John Marrant and Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, whose life stories concentrated on the evils of the Atlantic Slave Trade. In his book, he argues that an enslaved person’s duty is to escape from slavery, and that force should be used to prevent further enslavement. Advocating for the punishment of slave owners, including enslavement by their former slaves. A radical act at the time, as no Black person had ever publicly announced that enslavement should be abolished out of fear of retaliation and the lack of faith that their voice would be heard. Cugoano was the first African to publicly demand the end of slavery and to challenge the racist attitudes of Europeans against Africans. Some pretend that the Africans, in general, are a set of poor, ignorant, dispersed, unsociable people…This specious pretense is without any shadow of justice and truth, and, if the argument was even true, it could afford no just and warrantable matter for any society of men to hold slaves… which can be made better by bringing them away to a state of a degree equal to that of a cow or a horse. Cugoano failed to persuade King George III to change his opinions on the Atlantic Slave Trade, and like other members of the royal family, the king remained against its abolition. Nevertheless, the book was a success and well received. In 1787, it was reprinted three times and was translated into French in 1788. Cugoano sold it mainly through subscriptions and the book sales provided him with a supplementary income to fund his radical politics through rioting, resisting arrest, and letter writing. In 1791, he published an abridged version with additional material, addressed to the ‘Sons of Africa’ in which he expressed deep concern for the proposed deportation of Black people from Britain. Throughout the 1770s and 1780s, London’s small Black population increased significantly with the arrival of formerly enslaved African-American soldiers who had fought on the side of the British during the American Civil War. Deprived of the war pensions promised to them when they signed up to fight for the British, they were forced to work as servants to wealthy whites or were reduced to begging on the streets. Cugoano’s friend and colleague, Olaudah Equiano, took up their cause and backed a resettlement scheme to expatriate the Black Poor as they were referred to a newly established colony in Sierra Leone. Cugoano questioned the validity of the Sierra Leone scheme writing: “[can it] be readily conceived that government would establish a free colony for them near the spot, while supports its forts and garrisons, to ensnare, merchandize, and to carry others into captivity and slavery.” He organised protests against the deportation of London’s Black Poor and helped in disrupting and delaying the scheme. One can only assume that the public friendship between Cugoano and Equiano was severely tested. However, Equiano soon joined him in publicly condemning the programme after he was fired from his government role as Commissary Officer in March 1787. In the new version of his book, Cugoano announces his intention to open a school for Afro-Britons. About 1791, he writes a letter to Granville Sharp expressing an interest in being part of the second attempt to establish a colony in Sierra Leone that was now targeting Black Pioneers from Nova Scotia in Canada. After the failure of the first resettlement scheme, the organisers turned to Canada for new colonists at the suggestion of Thomas Peters (a Black Pioneer - formerly enslaved African Americans who fought on the side of the British during the War of Independence). Nova Scotia was home to about 3,000 Black Pioneers. They lived in terrible conditions in segregated societies and felt no loyalty to the land which had not welcomed them. It’s estimated that just under 12,000 Black Pioneers migrated to Sierra Leone in 1792. They help to create the colony at Freetown which grew into the country we have today. Cugoano also talks about the prejudice he experiences while promoting his book in the UK in his letter to Sharp. He wrote: ‘in the last three months b[een] upwards to fifty places but, Complexion is a Predominant Prejudice’. His travels were perhaps a precursor to the anti-slavery lecturing circuit that would flourish in the coming years. After 1791, Cugoano disappears from historical records. No record has been found of either Cugoano starting a school or participating in the resettlement scheme in Sierra Leone. Some historians speculate that he may have died sometime in 1791 or the following year in 1792. In his introduction of the 1999 reprint of Cugoano’s book, historian Vincent Carretta writes: Of the four major writers of African descent – Ignatius Sancho, John Marrant, Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, and Olaudah Equiano – whose works were first published in London during the 1780s, Cugoano remains the most radical and least familiar. Cugoano argued for the end of slavery and the economic plundering of Africa. Advocated for the economic independence of Africa and its people, demanded reparations, and questioned the European perceptions of Africans. Questions that are still important today in the 21st century. In November 2020, an English Heritage blue plaque honouring Cugoano was unveiled on Schomberg House in Pall Mall, London where he had lived and worked with the Cosways from 1784 to 1791. Sources: Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species by Ottobah Cugoano with an introduction by Vincent Carretta (published in 1999) Staying Power – The History of Black People in Britain by Peter Fryer Why did Black Londoners not join the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme 1783-1815? By Michael Sivapragasam https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/ottobah-cugoano/ https://www.englishlanguageandhistory.com/?id=prince-hoare-granville-sharp-henry-demane-2 https://web.archive.org/web/20071013064927/http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/gustavusvassa https://www.sjp.org.uk/history-and-heritage/

Black History Month UK 2021 'Black to the Past' campaign - African Tudors & Stuarts in Britain John Blanke is probably the most well-known African from Tudor England. He has been traced through both written records and pictorial images of him at a Tudor event. He was a royal trumpeter in the courts of Henry VII and Henry VII, making his first recorded appearance there in 1507. Not much is known about his early life, but research suggests he came to England as part of the entourage of Katherine Aragon in 1501. She came to England to marry Prince Arthur, eldest son and heir of Henry VII, and older brother to Henry VIII. Many Africans were living in Portugal during the period of 1400 to 1500. In the city of Seville, they represented 7.5% of the population, so much so that the city was described as 'a giant chessboard containing an equal number of white and black chessman.' So it's not surprising that Katherine's royal court included an African trumpeter. It's likely that Catalina of Motril, a Muslim Moor and one of Katherine's servants of the bedchamber, was also part of her entourage. John Blanke first appears in records when receiving a payment from Henry VII in December 1507. He was one of eight royal trumpeters under the leadership of Peter de Casa Nova between 1507 and 1512. The entry shows that he was paid 20 shillings (or 8d. in old pence) each day for his service in November. Monthly payments for the same amount continued throughout the following year. Sometime after the death of Prince Arthur in April 1502, he joined the household of King Henry VII. Katherine, deprived of her dowry and short of money, was reported to have complained that she couldn't even afford to pay her servants. Perhaps John was forced to find employment elsewhere. John Blanke was part of a long medieval and renaissance tradition of African musicians serving at European royal courts. In the 12th century, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI had African trumpeters in his entourage. While in the 16th century James IV of Scotland employed a drummer who was a Muslim Moor. Historic Royal Palaces website When King Henry VII died in April 1509, Blanke was one of the trumpeters who played at his funeral, dressed in black. He would have had an important part to play in the ceremonies that followed, accompanying the procession from Richmond to burial in Westminister Abbey. A month later, he played at the coronation of Henry VIII on 24th June, dressed in scarlet livery. A colour reserved for higher-ranking royal servants. Written evidence of John Blanke is found again when he petitioned King Henry VIII for a promotion and pay rise after the death of a fellow trumpeter. Blanke was well paid for those times, and his wage of 8d. (old pence) each day was the equivalent of a skilled craftsman. In addition to his wages, he also received room and board. On occasions that these were not required, he could have claimed an additional allowance called 'boardwage.' Later, in 1526, it was decreed that the royal trumpeters' 'boardwage' was to be 4d. each day. However, ambitious John wanted more, and after the death of a more senior trumpeter called Domynck Justinian, he petitioned the King for his former colleague's position. He argued that his wages were not sufficient to serve the King properly 'as other your trumpets do' and noted that he intended to serve the King for the rest of his life. The petition was a success, and his wages were doubled to 16d (old pence) each day. The petition still survives today and is now held in the National Archives. In February 1511, Henry VIII held a two-day grand jousting tournament in Westminster to celebrate the birth of his short-lived first son, Prince Henry, who was born on new year's day. It was a huge event, comparable to the World Cup or Olympics in modern times, and of course, the royal trumpeters were paid highly - more than ten times their daily wage. The event was recorded on the 60 foot long Westminster tournament roll of 1511 which is now held by the College of Arms. John Blanke is depicted twice on the roll, as one of the six trumpeters on horseback in the royal retinue. All six trumpeters wear yellow and grey livery and bear a trumpet decorated with the royal arms; Blanke alone wears a brown and yellow turban, while the others are bare-headed with longish hair. He appears a second time in the roll, wearing a green and gold head covering. The last time he appears in records is in 1512 when he got married because Henry VIII gave him a wedding present. On the 14th January 1512, Henry VIII issued a warrant to the great wardrobe (the part of the royal household that clothed the King) to deliver to 'a gown of violet cloth, and also a bonnet and hat' as a gift 'against his marriage.' This is the last time we hear of John Blanke in records as he doesn't appear in the list of royal trumpeters four years later in 1514. We don't know who he married, but it's most likely that she was an English woman and that the ceremony took place in St Nicholas' Church in what is now Deptford. England was still a Roman Catholic country in 1512, so he must have converted to Christianity if he wasn't a Christian already. "We know that there were black Christians in Renaissance London. For example, burial records from 1618 show that Anne Vause, 'a black-more', was buried at St Botolph's Church, Aldgate. Coincidentally, Anne's husband Anthonie was also a trumpeter." Historic Royal Palaces website There is no trace of John Blanke after 1512 in royal records after then. Some historians have suggested that he may have found work in another royal court that paid more or changed occupation - at the time, it was not uncommon for court servants to marry a widow and take on her husband's former trade in London. Another theory is that he may have died in battle, fighting in Scotland or France. Whatever the reason. Blanke is remarkable in that he demolishes the view that Africans living in England at the time were slaves. "Too often, people assume that all Africans in Europe at this time were enslaved. We are bombarded with images of enslaved Africans, often dating to later periods or other countries, most recently in the film 12 Years a Slave and the TV series Roots. But people at the time made other assumptions. For example, in 1572, Juan Gelofe, a 40-year-old African man enslaved in a Mexican silver mine, told an English sailor named William Collins that England "must be a good country as there were no slaves there." Collins replied, "It was true that they were all freemen in England." Historian and Author, Dr Miranda Kaufmann John Blanke is currently the only identifiable African Tudor portrayed in 16th-century British art. He is now featured in teaching resources, including BBC programmes for seven- to eleven-year-olds and an optional module of GCSE History (Migrants to Britain C.1250 to Present). He's also included in the National Archives' guide to black history. His image was the most requested for reproduction of those held by the College of Arms. From 2003 he featured in the National Trust's annual Black History Month exhibition at Sutton House, Hackney.

We explore the underreported anti-slave lecturing circuit in northwest England and its impact on the working classes. In a quiet little square surrounded by nondescript office blocks in central Manchester stands a statue of the US president Abraham Lincoln as a testament to its anti-slavery movement and solidarity with the Union during the American Civil War. ​ Beneath the bronzed statue is inscribed the words: 'the support that the working people of Manchester gave in their fight for the abolition of slavery during the American Civil War…'. Part of a letter sent to the working class of Manchester from Abraham Lincoln commending them on their historic act of solidarity against the slave trade. ​ In the early 19th century, Manchester, powered by the extraordinary growth of its cotton industry, became the world's first industrial city. But the cotton industry that fuelled the mills and factories of Britain's industrial revolution came directly from the American South – produced through the labour of nearly two million enslaved African Americans. Despite the British passing the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, which gave all enslaved people in the British empire their freedom after a period of up to six years. The UK remained economically dependent on it. This paradox of British morality and Britain's economic interest came into stark relief in 1861 with the onset of the American Civil War. ​ The Northern and Southern states went into battle over the economic and political control of slavery. Lincoln sent battleships to blockade the southern ports and stop the flow of cotton to Britain and other European countries. Believing that they would see the conflict as an anti-slavery issue rather than an anti-protection issue and not intervene in favour of the South. The blockade helped tip an already declining textile industry into a more profound depression otherwise referred to as the Cotton famine (1861-65). By the end of 1862, almost half a million working-class Northerners were out of work and receiving some form of poverty relief. In the following year, riots erupted in Stalybridge, one of the worst affected towns, when local officials replaced direct money payments with a voucher system. Soup kitchens were opened to help workers evicted from their homes. As the poverty worsened throughout the region, thousands of unemployed workers left their towns and emigrated overseas to America, Australia, and New Zealand. In fact, by 1864, 1,000 people had left the region. ​ Many mill and shipping companies resented the blockade. They lobbied the British government to intervene in the war and smash the embargo, allowing the precious raw cotton back into Europe. In Liverpool, a city made wealthy by cotton imports, it was said that more Confederate flags were flying along the banks of the Mersey than Virginia. The city was instrumental in running arms to the Confederacy and even built warships for the southern states. British neutrality meant that warships could not legally be made in the country for either side. Even the liberal-leaning Manchester Guardian urged the Rochdale mill workers to drop their support of the embargo. But they resisted, in a meeting at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, on 31 December 1862, despite their increasing hardship, they vowed to support the Union in its fight against slavery. An extract from the letter they wrote in the name of the Working People of Manchester to His Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, says: ​ ... the vast progress which you have made in the short space of twenty months fills us with hope that every stain on your freedom will shortly be removed, and that the erasure of that foul blot on civilisation and Christianity – chattel slavery – during your presidency, will cause the name of Abraham Lincoln to be honoured and revered by posterity. We are certain that such a glorious consummation will cement Great Britain and the United States in close and enduring regards. — Public Meeting, Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 31 December 1862. ​​​Yet cotton workers, despite their great hardships, pledged solidarity with the enslaved Africans on the plantations. At one public meeting, several workers declared that they would rather starve than support slavery. The contributions of Black abolitionists are often overlooked when analysing the abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade in Britain and its empire. But they played a huge role in opening the eyes of the British public to the terror and brutality of the slave trade in Britain and its empire. The Sons of Africa, now considered Britain's first Black political organisation, were instrumental in helping bring the anti-slave message to the English working classes. While working behind the scenes to aid their White allies in getting cases to courts such as the Zong massacre and lobbying pro-abolitionists MPs to pass anti-slave legislation. ​The Sons of Africa were a group of Black Abolitionists brought together under the leadership of Olaudah Equiano in 1785. Its members were educated Africans in London, including formerly enslaved men like Ottobah Cugoano, Olaudah Equiano, and other leading members of London's Black community. They had strong ties with the Anti-Slavery Society, a British abolitionist group of twelve White Quaker and Anglican men, including prominent anti-slave campaigners Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp. The Sons of Africa referred to Thomas Clarkson as "our constant and generous friend." The Sons of Africa conveyed their anti-slave messages to the public and elites through a variety of ways to help them accomplish their goals. They wrote letters, for example, to the MP Sir William Dolben. They often sent letters opposing slavery and detailing conditions of the Middle Passage to newspapers to help provoke debate. Shortly after his correspondence with them and a visit to see a slave ship being fitted out, Dolben proposed a Parliamentary bill to improve the conditions on slave ships. The Slave Act 1788 was the first law passed to regulate the slave trade, establishing standards of how many slaves could be carried in relation to ship size. Both Equiano and Cugoano wrote books detailing the hardships and suffering they had experienced as slaves. Cugoano was the first African to publicly demand the end of slavery and to challenge the perceived justification for enslaving Africans. He wrote: "if any man should buy another man... and compel him to his service without any agreement of that man... it is the duty of the man who is robbed in that manner to get out of the hands of his enslaver." The group also held public lectures. They worked closely with the Anti-Slavery Society and frequently lectured to their membership base. But unlike them, they didn't just confine their messaging to the English middle classes and actively targeted the working classes of the new industrial cities such as Liverpool, Bristol, and Lancashire by hosting lectures and writing letters to newspapers describing their enslavement and the brutalities of the slave trade. ​ "The Sons of Africa were just as energetic as white abolitionist... the records of their activities are far from complete and much about them remains unknown." By the late 1700s and early 1800s, the anti-slave lecturing circuit had become a mainstay of the abolitionist movement. In the 1800s, many abolitionists who were former enslaved Africans such as William Wells Brown, Henry Box Brown, Sarah Parker Redmond, Frederick Douglass, and James Watkins also visited the northwest of England to campaign against slavery in America. James Watkins escaped from slavery in the USA and became well known throughout the northwest of England through his public lectures on the horrors of slavery. Like fellow escapee, Henry Box Brown, Watkins had come to England because of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which was a law that declared all runaways, even in free states, should be returned to their owners. Formerly enslaved James Watkins came to live in Bolton and his landlord, a printer, agreed to publish his autobiography. This biography is now held at Bolton Museum & Archive Service. Watkins visited local millworkers to petition their support for the anti-slavery movement, emphasising the connection between the cotton industry and slavery. Watkin's anti-slavery campaign amongst local workers did not fall on deaf ears. The workers gave him their support. He made the plight of enslaved people known across many areas of the borough. There were many escaped former enslaved African Americans who toured Lancashire and the rest of Britain to condemn the southern slaving states of America. In the Oldham Archives, the narrative of one escapee, James Johnson, a 'colored Evangelist,' has been discovered. Probably the most famous of these touring former slaves was William Andrew Jackson. He escaped from slavery as the coachman of southern leader Jefferson Davis. He was a great speaker and used his speaking skills to rouse people into supporting the anti-slavery northern states of America. He was widely praised by Lancashire workers. 'I hope you will not allow any temporary suffering to lead you to give your sympathies to the enemies of human freedom on the other side of the Atlantic; I hope we shall prove there is something we love better than cotton, that is liberty of the human race.' George Thompson at a meeting in Stockport, 1861. Henry 'Box' Brown was born enslaved on an American plantation and worked in a tobacco factory. In 1849 Brown's master refused to buy Brown's wife when she and their children were put up for sale, and they were sold to a man in North Carolina. This act prompted Brown's determination to escape from slavery, and a scheme was hatched to post him to Philadelphia in a box. Helped by the free black American, James Caesar Anthony Smith, Brown was posted from Richmond in Virginia to the city of Philadelphia. The 350-mile journey took 27 hours to complete. In Philadelphia, the box was opened, and Brown jumped out and declared, 'Good morning, gentlemen!' as if he had arrived on a train. The story of this journey to freedom caught the public's imagination, and Brown became well known, joining the abolitionist lecture circuit and calling himself Henry Box Brown to commemorate his escape. Brown and James Caesar Smith toured the north of England with an exhibition called 'The Mirror of Slavery.' He spent the next 14 years lecturing and re-enacting the manner of his escape. By 1865 interest was lessening in stories of the American slavery experience due to the abolition of slavery after Lincoln's victory in the American Civil war. ​Historian Robin Blackburn has compared how workers were treated in the two forms of labouring – saying that 'industrial discipline is similar to plantation discipline.' Although some northwest workers supported the southern 'slave' states, the majority supported the 'anti-slavery northern cause, despite it meaning that they might suffer unemployment. The many well-attended meetings in communities throughout Lancashire show the extent of their support for the northern states. It was where many made the connection between the chattel slaves in the Americas and their own position of 'wage slavery' in poor conditions in the mills. Midway through the Cotton Famine, Abraham Lincoln sent over an aid package containing boxes of bacon and bread, bags of rice and corn, and 15,000 barrels of flour to help feed the starving people of Lancashire in recognition of their support of the northern states. Its arrival in Liverpool in February 1863 was greeted by an enthusiastic pro northern public meeting of between 3-4,000 people. The only surviving item, a flour barrel, is in a collection at Touchstones Rochdale. On 14 August 2016, a plaque created by BBC History was unveiled to commemorate the Rochdale mill workers who supported the struggle against slavery during the American Civil War. It is located by a road still called today what is was known as then –"Cotton Famine Road." The road was cut across the landscape by unemployed workers from Lancashire in a public works scheme – a response to the humanitarian crisis that was unfolding in the region. Sources: http://revealinghistories.org.uk/the-american-civil-war-and-the-lancashire-cotton-famine.html https://londonhuawiki.wpi.edu/images/e/e4/E2018.Sons_of_Africa_history_ISP.Weddington.pdf https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Sons-Of-Africa/ https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2013/feb/04/lincoln-oscars-manchester-cotton-abraham http://equianosworld.org/associates-abolition.php?id=17

Jamaican born Dr Harold Moody campaigned against racism in Edwardian Britain and provided free medical care to the poorer members of his local community before the establishment of NHS. On the 1st September 2020, Google Doodle recognised Jamaican-born British doctor, racial equality campaigner, and founder of the U.K.'s first civil rights movement Dr. Harold Moody. On this day (1st September) in 1904, Dr. Moody arrived in the U.K. from Jamaica to pursue his medical studies at King’s College London. Alongside his medical work, he dedicated his life to campaigning for racial equality and advocating against discrimination. Harold Arundel Moody was born on October 8, 1882, in the Jamaican capital of Kingston. He received early exposure to the medical field while in secondary school through his work for his father’s pharmaceutical business. Determined to become a doctor, he left Jamaica in 1904 to study medicine in London. Dr. Moody soon came face-to-face with rampant racism in Edwardian London. Even though he qualified to practice medicine, finished top of his class, and won numerous academic prizes, he was repeatedly refused work due to the color bar system that denied people opportunities based on race. Instead, he opened his own private medical practice in Peckham, South East London—the neighborhood that inspired the design of the buildings situated below Dr. Moody in today’s Doodle. The children depicted represent the countless impoverished youth Dr. Moody would treat free of charge, in a time before the U.K. had a National Health Service. In doing so, Dr. Moody earned a reputation as a compassionate humanitarian and philanthropist who would always help those in need. Dr. Moody’s determination to improve the lives of those around him wasn’t limited to his medical practice—he simultaneously focused his attention on combating racial injustice as well. He founded the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931 with the mission to fight for racial equality both in the U.K. and around the world. The group pushed for change, at a government level, to combat discrimination in its many forms. Thank you, Dr. Moody, for paving the way towards a more equal future.

Louise "Miss Lou" was a famed poet, folklorist, and the first Black student to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1945. On the 7th September 2022, Google Doodle celebrated Louise "Miss Lou" Bennett-Coverley's 103rd birthday with an illustration by Jamaican guest artist Robyn Smith. The Jamaican poet, folklorist, activist and entertainer empowered the country to take pride in its language and culture. Known by many Jamaicans as “Miss Lou,” Bennett's social commentary and sense of humour made her a popular personality in the country. Bennett was born on September 7, 1919 in Kingston, Jamaica. She developed a passion for literature and Jamaican folklore in school and began writing poetry. Fascinated by her native language, Bennett wrote in the local dialect. Her first public appearance was her recital of a poem in Jamaican patois at a concert. Soon, Bennett was given a weekly column in The Gleaner, the island’s newspaper at the time, though they originally rejected Bennett’s poems. The majority of Jamaicans speak patois, but critics denounced it as an inferior and improper language. Her column, which captured the experiences of Jamaicans in their own language, gained support across the country. In 1942, Bennett published her first book of poetry, Dialect Verses. It earned her a British Council scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. As the school's first Black student, Bennett worked for the British Broadcasting Commission (BBC) where she hosted the radio program Caribbean Carnival. After completing her degree, she hosted other programs like West Indian Guest Night and acted in theatre companies. Returning to Jamaica in 1956, Bennett worked as a Drama Officer and later Director of the Jamaica Social Welfare Commission. On behalf of the commission, she moved around the country to train village instructors and regional officers with workshops like playmaking, improvisation and mime. She gave lectures on Jamaican folklore in the United States and England. Bennett also hosted radio programs like Laugh with Louise and Miss Lou's Views, and Ring Ding, a beloved Saturday morning children’s TV show airing on Jamaica Broadcasting Commission (JBC). In 1998, the Jamaican government appointed Bennett as the country’s Cultural Ambassador at Large. She was also inducted into the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II. Bennett was a champion of her country’s language and culture, inspiring Jamaicans to take pride in both. Happy Birthday, Miss Lou!

Sir W. Arthur Lewis is one of the pioneers of Development Economics and was of the first proponents of reparations to the Caribbean and other former colonies of the West. On the 10th December 2020, Google Doodle, illustrated by Manchester-based guest artist Camilla Ru, celebrated St. Lucian economist, professor, and author Sir W. Arthur Lewis, considered one of the pioneers in the field of modern development economics. A trailblazer not only in his research, he was also the first Black faculty member at the London School of Economics, first Black person to hold a chair in a British university (at Manchester University), and the first Black instructor to receive full professorship at Princeton University. On this day in 1979, Lewis was jointly awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his pioneering work to model the economic forces that impact developing countries. William Arthur Lewis was born on January 23, 1915, in Castries on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, at the time a British colony. Despite facing challenges with racial discrimination, in 1932 he won a government scholarship and set out to study at the London School of Economics, where he eventually earned a doctorate in industrial economics. Lewis quickly ascended the ranks of academia and by 33 was a full professor—one of the highest distinctions of a tenured professor. Lewis shifted his focus to world economic history and economic development and in 1954 published his foundational article “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour.” Among many valuable accomplishments, Lewis contributed influential work to the United Nations and shared his expertise as an adviser to governments in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. He also helped establish and served as the first president of the Caribbean Development Bank. In honor of his lifelong achievements, the British government knighted Lewis in 1963.

Google Doodle celebrates the visionary feminist and Marxist who developed the theory of triple oppression which connects race, class and gender to oppression. Founder of the first Black British newspaper and mother of the Notting Hill Carnival during Black History Month UK. Today’s Doodle commemorates Trinidad-born activist, feminist, journalist, orator, and community organizer Claudia Jones. Among her groundbreaking accomplishments, Jones founded and served as the editor-in-chief for the West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Caribbean News—Britain’s first, major Black newspaper. Through its global news coverage, the Gazette aimed to unify the Black community in the worldwide battle against discrimination. The publication also provided a platform for Jones to organize Britain’s first Caribbean carnival in 1959, which is widely credited as the precursor to today’s annual celebration of Caribbean culture known as the Notting Hill Carnival. On this day in 2008, Jones was honored with a Great British Stamp in the “Women of Distinction” series to commemorate her lifetime of pioneering activism. Claudia Jones was born Claudia Vera Cumberbatch on February 21, 1915 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. At 8 years old, she moved with her family to New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. Passionate about writing, Jones contributed to and led a variety of communist publications as a young adult, and she spent much of her adulthood as an active member of the Communist Party USA. Throughout her life, Jones tirelessly championed issues like civil rights, gender equality, and decolonization through journalism, community organization, and public speaking. She focused much of her work on the liberation of Black women everywhere from the discrimination they faced due to a combination of classism, racism, and sexism. Jones’ political activity led to multiple imprisonments and ultimately her deportation to the U.K. in 1955, but she refused to be deterred. Beginning a new chapter of her life in Britain, she turned particular attention to the issues facing London’s West Indian immigrant community. In an effort to counteract racial tensions, she inaugurated an annual Caribbean carnival, whose spirit lives on today as a symbol of community and inclusion. Thank you, Claudia Jones, for your lifelong commitment to a more equitable world.