HISTORICAL SOURCES
Source secrets
Hannah Cusworth discusses the fascinating array of documents and techniques that researchers can use to study black British history
Scientific analysis of archaeological finds
Much of the evidence of a black presence in Britain before the 1500s comes from a range of rapidly improving scientific techniques. By extracting and sequencing DNA samples from a skeleton, then comparing it to modern profiles, it is possible to determine skin and eye colour. Isotope analysis of the enamel from a skeleton’s teeth can help work out where that person grew up, too, as well as their diet and whether the water they drank when they were younger matches the water found where they were buried.
Using methods like these, a team at the University of Reading concluded that a skeleton found in York (the ‘Ivory Bangle Lady’, so named for the jewellery she was buried with) was likely a high-status Roman woman, who had grown up somewhere warmer than northern England, with one parent likely from north Africa.
Similarly, bioarchaeologists at the Museum of London recently studied the skeletons of 14th-century victims of the Black Death buried in a cemetery in East Smithfield, London. Using a form of forensic archaeology, it was concluded that four of the female bodies were likely to be of mixed heritage, and three were of African descent.
Church records and legal documents
The parish records and official documents being kept by the Tudor era provide insights into the lives of black British individuals. Historians have argued that it was during this time that modern ideas of race were beginning to develop, and many documents give us an idea of someone’s skin colour.
The descriptors used change over time. In Tudor times, for example, “blackamore” and “Ethiope” were more common, before generally being replaced with “negro” or “black” by the Georgian and Victorian periods. Parish registers also recorded the baptisms, marriages and burials of black Britons in major cities and in villages, from Cornwall to Lancashire.
In the British Caribbean, where racial slavery underpinned everything, the recording of a person’s race was much more systematic. From inventories (lists of someone’s possessions at their death), it can be determined that free people of colour – some who were born free, and some who became free in their lifetime – occasionally died wealthy. Susannah Augier, the 18th-century daughter of a planter and an enslaved woman in Jamaica, died owning fine mahogany furniture, silver plate, and even enslaved people herself.
Paintings and photographs
The Westminster Tournament Roll – depicting a joust held in 1511 by Henry VIII – features two images of a black trumpeter. Surrounded by other (white) trumpeters, the man is dressed in yellow and grey livery, and the royal standard hangs from the instrument. Other records reveal him to be John Blanke, a “Blacke trumpet” who petitioned for higher wages (and received them), and was given a wedding gift of a violet velvet gown and hat.
Within 100 or so years, another way of depicting black people had become common. When having a portrait done, it became fashionable for wealthy white sitters to be shown alongside a black servant or attendant, who, in many cases, were essentially enslaved people. For example, in Sir Peter Lely’s portrait of Elizabeth Murray, Lady Tollemache (pictured), an unnamed black individual holds a dish of roses. This was part of a wider practice for those who made their money from plantation slavery to parade black people as fashion accessories.
Victorian records don’t always state a person’s race, so historians such as Caroline Bressey have used photography when researching black British history in this era. By the late 19th century, institutions such as asylums, children’s homes and prisons utilised new technology and included photographic portraits in their case files. These provide invaluable evidence of everyday black lives, although many were likely taken without consent.
“Photography is a vital source for black British history during the Victorian period”
The writings of black Britons
From the Georgian period onwards, the voices of black Britons themselves enter the list of available historical sources. For instance, for researchers investigating the fight for freedom and abolition, both Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince’s autobiographies give first-hand insights into the horrors of slavery.
We also have access to personal letters, particularly from more privileged black Georgians, such as Catherine Despard, a mixed-race Jamaican woman. As part of her campaign against the imprisonment of her husband, Edward, an Irish radical, she wrote numerous protest letters, one of which was read out in parliament.
Another key voice is Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first African Anglican bishop in west Africa. Freed from slavery in 1821, he was resettled in Sierra Leone and briefly educated in England. He later authored several books, mostly focused on the Yoruba language and history.
By the 20th century, a rich textual archive had been left by black Britons, from speeches against racism to accounts of everyday life.
Hannah Cusworth is a historian who specialises in black British histories. Formerly a schoolteacher, she is currently completing a PhD with English Heritage looking at mahogany, race and the 18th-century Atlantic world