Black and British

Black and British Plot Summary

Introduction

When the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in June 1948, carrying 492 Caribbean migrants to Britain, most observers viewed it as the beginning of Black British history. Yet this common assumption overlooks centuries of African presence in Britain stretching back to Roman times. The discovery of the "Ivory Bangle Lady," a high-status North African woman buried in fourth-century York, and the "Beachy Head Woman" from third-century Sussex reveal that Britain's multicultural story began far earlier than most realize. This hidden history challenges our understanding of British identity and reveals a nation whose relationship with race and empire has always been more complex than simplified narratives suggest. The journey from imperial exploitation to citizenship rights represents one of the most profound transformations in modern British history. Through examining this evolution, we confront fundamental questions about freedom, belonging, and national identity. How did a nation that once dominated the transatlantic slave trade become a champion of abolition? Why did post-war Britain simultaneously need Commonwealth workers while politically resisting their arrival? And how have Black Britons themselves shaped the nation's culture, politics, and self-understanding? By tracing this centuries-long story of struggle and achievement, we gain crucial insights into how diverse societies navigate the legacies of historical injustice while building more inclusive futures.

Chapter 1: Early Presence: Africans in Tudor and Stuart Britain (1500-1700)

The presence of Africans in Tudor and Stuart Britain challenges our conventional understanding of this period as racially homogeneous. By the late 16th century, a small but visible African population existed in London and other port cities. Parish records document African baptisms, marriages, and burials, while court documents and personal accounts reveal Africans working as musicians, servants, sailors, and craftspeople. Perhaps the most famous visual evidence comes from the Westminster Tournament Roll of 1511, which depicts John Blanke, a royal trumpeter who served in the courts of both Henry VII and Henry VIII, performing at a celebration for the birth of a royal son. The status of these early Black Britons was complex and varied. Unlike in later colonial systems, Africans in Tudor England were not automatically enslaved. Many were paid servants with similar rights to their English counterparts. Some, like Jacques Francis, a skilled salvage diver who worked on the wreck of the Mary Rose in 1546, were highly valued for their expertise. Others arrived as diplomats or merchants from African kingdoms, treated with the respect due to foreign dignitaries. This relative openness reflected a period before rigid racial hierarchies had been established to justify colonial exploitation. England's relationship with Africa transformed dramatically during this period. The first English voyages to West Africa in the 1550s and 1560s sought gold, ivory, and pepper, engaging with African kingdoms as trading partners. However, John Hawkins' voyages of the 1560s marked England's entry into the slave trade, capturing Africans to sell in Spanish colonies. Queen Elizabeth initially expressed moral qualms about this enterprise, stating that the captives would "call upon God for vengeance," but financial interests ultimately prevailed. By 1600, the foundations for England's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade had been laid. Religious and cultural attitudes toward Africans during this period were ambivalent. While negative stereotypes existed, they had not yet hardened into the systematic racism that would develop to justify plantation slavery. Shakespeare's portrayal of Othello as a noble Moor reflects this complexity, as does the respectful reception of Abd al-Wahid bin Masoud, Moroccan ambassador to Elizabeth I in 1600. However, as England's colonial ambitions grew, particularly with the establishment of Caribbean sugar plantations in the mid-17th century, attitudes began to shift toward viewing Africans as naturally suited for enslavement. By the late Stuart period, the legal status of Africans in England had become increasingly contested. While colonial laws clearly defined enslaved status, English common law offered no such clarity. This ambiguity created spaces for resistance, as seen in the case of John Phillip, who in 1685 successfully sued for wages his master had withheld, with the court ruling that "being baptized according to the rites of the Church, he is free." Yet simultaneously, newspapers began advertising enslaved people for sale in London coffee houses, treating them as property. This tension between English domestic law and colonial slave codes would eventually erupt in the landmark Somerset case of 1772, which marked the beginning of slavery's legal unraveling in England itself. This early period established patterns that would shape Black British history for centuries to come: the gap between colonial practices and domestic realities, the tension between economic exploitation and humanitarian principles, and most importantly, the continuous presence and agency of Africans in British society despite attempts to erase them from historical memory.

Chapter 2: The Slave Trade Era: Exploitation and Resistance (1700-1807)

The 18th century witnessed Britain's emergence as the dominant force in the transatlantic slave trade. Following the War of Spanish Succession, Britain gained the Asiento contract in 1713, securing the exclusive right to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish colonies. This commercial prize accelerated British involvement in human trafficking. By mid-century, British ships were transporting approximately 50,000 enslaved Africans annually across the Atlantic. Liverpool emerged as the world's largest slave-trading port, with Bristol and London also playing major roles. The trade operated as a triangular commerce: manufactured goods shipped to Africa, enslaved people transported to the Americas, and colonial products like sugar, tobacco, and cotton returned to Britain. The human suffering behind these statistics is almost unfathomable. Captives endured the horrors of the Middle Passage – the transatlantic journey that typically lasted six to eight weeks. Packed into ships like the infamous Brooks, which carried 609 people in spaces where they could barely move, many died from disease, malnutrition, or suicide. Those who survived faced sale in the Americas and lifetimes of brutal exploitation on plantations. Captain John Newton, who later became an abolitionist and wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace," described the trade as "a business at which my heart now shudders." Within Britain itself, the profits from slavery transformed the landscape. Merchant families built elegant townhouses in Liverpool, Bristol, and London. Country estates like Harewood House in Yorkshire were constructed with wealth derived from West Indian plantations. Banking houses that would evolve into modern financial institutions were established to finance slave voyages and plantation mortgages. The slave trade and plantation slavery became so thoroughly integrated into the British economy that many considered them indispensable to national prosperity. Yet this period also witnessed growing resistance, both from enslaved people themselves and from a nascent abolitionist movement. Enslaved Africans brought to Britain sometimes escaped, establishing small free Black communities in port cities. Legal challenges to slavery within England culminated in the landmark Somerset case of 1772, when Lord Chief Justice Mansfield ruled that slavery was not supported by English common law, preventing a master from forcibly removing his slave from England. While not abolishing slavery outright, the judgment created a legal distinction between Britain and its colonies that abolitionists would exploit. By the late 18th century, a powerful movement against the slave trade had emerged. Quakers provided early moral leadership, followed by evangelical Christians like William Wilberforce. Former slaves like Olaudah Equiano published powerful narratives of their experiences, while women organized sugar boycotts and gathered petition signatures. The movement pioneered modern campaigning techniques – mass petitioning, consumer boycotts, speaking tours, and iconic imagery like the kneeling slave asking "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" After two decades of parliamentary battles, the slave trade was finally abolished in 1807. The legacy of this period continues to shape Britain in profound ways. The wealth generated from slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution and establish Britain's global commercial dominance. Cultural attitudes toward race hardened to justify exploitation, creating stereotypes and prejudices that would persist long after slavery ended. Yet the abolitionist movement also established important precedents for social reform and human rights advocacy. The tension between economic self-interest and moral principle that characterized the slave trade debates would reappear repeatedly in later controversies over empire, immigration, and racial equality.

Chapter 3: Abolition to Emancipation: Legal Battles for Freedom (1807-1838)

The abolition of the British slave trade in 1807 marked a significant moral victory, but left the institution of slavery intact throughout the British Empire. Approximately 800,000 enslaved people remained in bondage in British colonies, primarily in the Caribbean. The abolitionists, having achieved their first goal, now turned their attention to ending slavery itself. This next phase of the struggle would take another twenty-six years and involve complex legal battles, slave rebellions, and one of the most expensive government actions in British history. To enforce the ban on slave trading, Britain established the West Africa Squadron, a naval patrol tasked with intercepting slave ships. Operating from Freetown, Sierra Leone, these ships faced enormous challenges – a vast coastline to patrol, tropical diseases that decimated crews, and legal complications in detaining vessels from other nations. Despite these obstacles, the squadron captured approximately 1,600 slave ships and liberated around 150,000 Africans between 1808 and the 1860s. These "Recaptives" were settled primarily in Sierra Leone, where they formed new communities and developed hybrid Anglo-African identities that would significantly influence West African history. Meanwhile, conditions for enslaved people in the Caribbean were deteriorating. Plantation owners, unable to legally import new workers, intensified exploitation of their existing workforce. This pressure, combined with news of abolition debates in Britain, contributed to major slave rebellions. The 1816 Barbados Rebellion, led by Bussa, involved thousands of enslaved people before being brutally suppressed. Even more significant was the 1831 Baptist War in Jamaica, where 60,000 enslaved people participated in an uprising led by Sam Sharpe, a Baptist deacon. Though eventually crushed with over 500 executions, this rebellion convinced many in Britain that slavery was becoming unsustainable. The legal status of enslaved people who came to Britain remained contentious throughout this period. While the Somerset case had established that masters could not forcibly remove slaves from England, it had not clearly abolished slavery within Britain itself. This ambiguity led to cases like that of Grace Jones, who had lived in England as a free woman but was re-enslaved upon returning to Antigua. In 1827, the court ruled that her free status in England did not permanently change her condition – a judgment that alarmed abolitionists by suggesting that freedom in Britain was merely temporary for those born into slavery. By the early 1830s, public opinion had shifted decisively against slavery. Mass petitioning campaigns, with women playing a crucial role, generated over 5,000 petitions with 1.5 million signatures. The Reform Act of 1832 brought more anti-slavery MPs into Parliament. Finally, in 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed, taking effect on August 1, 1834. However, the act contained significant compromises. Most enslaved people were subjected to a period of "apprenticeship" lasting until 1838, during which they continued working for their former masters. More controversially, the British government paid £20 million (equivalent to billions today) in compensation – not to the enslaved people, but to the slave owners for the loss of their "property." The period from abolition to emancipation reveals the complex interplay between moral principle and economic interest that characterized Britain's relationship with slavery. While the nation had taken a moral stand against the trade and eventually slavery itself, it did so in ways that protected property rights and minimized disruption to the colonial economy. The compensation of slave owners rather than the enslaved created an enduring injustice that continues to shape debates about historical reparations. Nevertheless, the achievement of emancipation represented a remarkable moral transformation – within a single lifetime, Britain had gone from being the world's largest slave trader to outlawing slavery throughout its vast empire.

Chapter 4: Imperial Contradictions: Black Victorians and Empire (1838-1914)

The Victorian era embodied profound contradictions in Britain's relationship with race and empire. Having abolished slavery, Britain positioned itself as a global moral leader, with the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron continuing to intercept slave ships. Yet simultaneously, Britain was expanding its imperial control over Africa, establishing new forms of economic exploitation. This tension between humanitarian principles and imperial ambition defined the period and shaped the experiences of Black people both in Britain and throughout the empire. Within Britain itself, the Black Victorian population remained small but significant. The 1851 census recorded approximately 10,000 people of African descent in Britain, concentrated primarily in port cities like Liverpool, Cardiff, and London's East End. Their experiences varied dramatically by class and circumstance. A small Black middle class emerged, including professionals like James Africanus Horton, a Sierra Leonean who graduated from Edinburgh University and became a surgeon in the British Army. Others found success in entertainment, like Pablo Fanque (born William Darby), who became Britain's first Black circus owner and one of the most successful showmen of the Victorian era, later immortalized in the Beatles song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite." For most Black Victorians, however, life was precarious. Many worked as sailors, laborers, or domestic servants, facing discrimination in employment and housing. Some found themselves exhibited as living curiosities in "human zoos" and ethnographic displays that became popular during this period. The "Savage South Africa" exhibition at Earl's Court in 1899 featured over 200 Africans living in a reconstructed village, performing for paying visitors. These displays reinforced notions of racial difference and European superiority, presenting Africans as exotic "others" rather than fellow imperial citizens. The Victorian period saw the development of new racial theories that attempted to scientifically justify European dominance. Pseudo-scientific classifications ranked races in hierarchies, with Europeans invariably at the top. These theories provided intellectual justification for imperial expansion in Africa. The "Scramble for Africa" in the late nineteenth century saw European powers, including Britain, carve up the continent into colonies. What had begun as coastal trading posts expanded into territorial control, justified by a self-proclaimed "civilizing mission" that portrayed colonization as beneficial to Africans themselves. Yet African agency remained a powerful force throughout this period. When three kings from Bechuanaland (modern Botswana) – Khama III, Sebele I, and Bathoen I – traveled to London in 1895 to appeal directly to the British public against Cecil Rhodes' expansionist ambitions, they demonstrated sophisticated understanding of British politics and values. Their successful campaign, which included speaking tours of British cities and meetings with influential figures, showed how some African leaders strategically used British public opinion and professed imperial values to protect their people's interests. By the end of the Victorian era, the contradictions of empire were becoming increasingly apparent. Britain claimed to rule in the interests of its colonial subjects while systematically denying them political rights and economic opportunities. The ideology of racial hierarchy that had developed to justify slavery had been repurposed to justify imperial rule. Yet the connections forged through empire – educational, commercial, cultural, and personal – were creating networks that would ultimately challenge imperial power. The Victorian period thus laid the groundwork for both the expansion of empire to its greatest extent and the emergence of the movements that would eventually dismantle it.

Chapter 5: World Wars and Migration: Changing British Society (1914-1960)

The world wars fundamentally transformed Britain's relationship with its empire and the people within it. When World War I erupted in 1914, thousands of men from throughout the British Empire volunteered to serve. The British West Indies Regiment recruited over 15,000 men, while African colonies contributed both combat troops and a vast army of carriers and laborers. Despite their enthusiasm, these colonial troops faced discrimination within the military. Most West Indian soldiers were assigned to labor battalions rather than combat roles, and when BWIR soldiers protested unequal treatment at Taranto, Italy in 1918, the ringleaders received harsh punishments. The post-WWI period witnessed increased racial tensions within Britain itself. In 1919, port cities including Liverpool, Cardiff, and Glasgow saw attacks on Black communities by white mobs. Economic competition for scarce jobs was a key factor, as demobilized white servicemen resented the presence of Black workers. In Liverpool, Charles Wootton, a Bermudan sailor, was chased by a mob and drowned in the Queen's Dock. Rather than protecting Black residents, the authorities responded with the Aliens Order of 1920, which required "coloured seamen" to register with police and restricted their employment opportunities. World War II created new dynamics as approximately 10,000 West Indians and thousands of Africans served in British forces. Perhaps more significantly, the stationing of over 130,000 African American GIs in Britain from 1942 onward created unprecedented interactions between Black servicemen and the British public. Despite American military authorities' attempts to impose Jim Crow segregation in Britain, many British civilians rejected these practices. Relationships formed between Black American soldiers and British women challenged racial taboos, resulting in the birth of an estimated 2,000 mixed-race children. The immediate post-war period brought severe economic challenges to Britain. The country faced massive reconstruction needs, labor shortages, and the financial burden of maintaining its global empire. Meanwhile, many Caribbean colonies were experiencing high unemployment and limited opportunities. This economic complementarity set the stage for significant migration that would transform British society. In 1948, the British Nationality Act confirmed that all Commonwealth citizens were British subjects with the right to settle in the United Kingdom. On June 22, 1948, the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury, carrying 492 passengers from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. Though not the first Caribbean migrants to Britain, the Windrush passengers have come to symbolize the beginning of post-war migration. Many were former servicemen who had fought for Britain during the war. Others were responding to job advertisements placed by the British government in Caribbean newspapers, seeking workers for the National Health Service, public transport, and other sectors facing labor shortages. The reception these pioneers received was mixed. While some employers welcomed them, housing proved a significant challenge. Many landlords refused to rent to Black tenants, displaying signs reading "No Coloureds" or "Europeans Only." The new arrivals often found themselves confined to overcrowded, substandard accommodation in areas like Brixton in London, Handsworth in Birmingham, and Moss Side in Manchester. These neighborhoods gradually developed into centers of Caribbean community life, with churches, social clubs, and businesses catering to the growing population. By the late 1950s, racial tensions were increasing. The 1958 race riots in Notting Hill and Nottingham marked a low point, as white mobs attacked Caribbean residents and their homes. These events prompted the first serious political discussions about race relations legislation, but also led to calls for immigration restrictions. The period ended with a society in transition – the foundations of multicultural Britain had been laid, but the journey toward equality and acceptance had only just begun.

Chapter 6: From Windrush to Uprising: Struggle for Equality (1960-1981)

The 1960s marked a pivotal shift in Britain's approach to race and immigration. The decade began with the Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962, which restricted entry to those with employment vouchers, effectively ending the open-door policy for Commonwealth citizens. This legislation reflected growing political anxiety about immigration levels, particularly from the Caribbean and South Asia. Further restrictions followed with the Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1968 and the Immigration Act of 1971, creating a system that increasingly privileged white Commonwealth citizens over non-white ones. The most inflammatory intervention in this debate came from Conservative MP Enoch Powell, whose 1968 "Rivers of Blood" speech predicted catastrophic consequences from immigration. Powell's apocalyptic rhetoric electrified public debate, with opinion polls showing 74% support for his views. Though dismissed from the Shadow Cabinet, Powell had given voice to widespread anxieties and legitimized openly racist sentiments. His followers launched intimidation campaigns against Black families, including burning crosses outside their homes in chilling echoes of American racism. Against this backdrop of increasing hostility, Black communities organized to defend their rights and challenge discrimination. The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963, led by Paul Stephenson and inspired by similar actions in the American civil rights movement, successfully challenged the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian drivers. Organizations like the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD) and later the Race Today Collective mobilized against discrimination in housing, employment, and public services. These efforts contributed to the passage of Race Relations Acts in 1965, 1968, and 1976, which progressively outlawed discrimination. The 1970s saw tensions between Black communities and the police reach new heights. The "sus laws," which allowed police to stop and search anyone they suspected might commit a crime, were disproportionately used against young Black men. The Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group became notorious for heavy-handed tactics in Black neighborhoods. These practices created deep distrust between Black communities and law enforcement, a tension that would eventually erupt into open conflict. By the late 1970s, a new generation was coming of age – the British-born children of the Windrush generation. Unlike their parents, they had no other homeland and were less willing to accept discrimination and marginalization. Economic recession, high unemployment, and aggressive policing created a powder keg in inner-city areas. In January 1981, a devastating fire at a birthday party in New Cross, South London, killed thirteen young Black people. The perceived indifference of the police, media, and wider society to these deaths led to the Black People's Day of Action, when over 20,000 people marched through London in protest. Just months later, in April 1981, tensions exploded into the Brixton uprising, when three days of confrontation between predominantly young Black people and police saw buildings burned and hundreds injured. Similar disturbances followed in Toxteth (Liverpool), Moss Side (Manchester), and other areas with significant Black populations. Lord Scarman's subsequent inquiry acknowledged the role of racial disadvantage and discriminatory policing in creating the conditions for unrest, though it stopped short of recognizing institutional racism. These events marked both the culmination of decades of discrimination and the beginning of a new phase in Black British history. The uprisings forced the nation to confront the consequences of racial inequality and the failure of integration policies. They demonstrated that the children of immigrants would not quietly accept the second-class citizenship that had often been their parents' lot. The period from Windrush to the 1981 uprisings thus represents a crucial transition – from the optimistic arrival of the post-war migrants to the painful recognition that Britain had failed to create a society of genuine equality and opportunity for all its citizens.

Chapter 7: Redefining Britishness: Cultural Identity and Recognition (1981-2000)

The aftermath of the 1981 uprisings saw both intensified policing of Black communities and growing recognition that fundamental changes were needed in British race relations. The Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher responded initially with increased police powers and a focus on "law and order" rather than addressing underlying inequalities. However, local authorities, particularly in London under the Greater London Council led by Ken Livingstone, developed more progressive approaches, funding Black cultural initiatives and anti-racist education programs before the GLC was abolished in 1986. This period witnessed an explosion of Black British cultural expression that profoundly influenced mainstream British culture. The sound systems and reggae music that had provided cultural spaces for the Windrush generation evolved into distinctly British forms. The 1980s saw the emergence of British reggae bands like Steel Pulse and Aswad, while the fusion of reggae with punk created two-tone music that brought Black and white youth together. By the 1990s, jungle, drum and bass, and trip-hop – pioneered by artists like Goldie, Roni Size, and Tricky – created soundtracks that reflected the hybrid identities of urban Britain. Literature offered another avenue for exploring Black British experiences. Writers like Caryl Phillips, Joan Riley, and Hanif Kureishi examined questions of belonging, identity, and racism in novels that reached mainstream audiences. In 1984, Linton Kwesi Johnson became the first Black poet included in the Penguin Modern Classics series. These cultural achievements helped create spaces where Black Britons could articulate their own stories rather than being defined by others, while simultaneously enriching British culture as a whole. The murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and the Metropolitan Police's mishandling of the investigation became a focal point for campaigns against racism. The persistence of Stephen's parents, Doreen and Neville Lawrence, eventually led to the Macpherson Inquiry, which in 1999 officially acknowledged the existence of institutional racism in British policing – a landmark recognition that previous inquiries had avoided. The subsequent Race Relations Amendment Act of 2000 placed positive duties on public authorities to promote racial equality rather than merely avoid discrimination. Education emerged as another crucial battleground. Black parents organized supplementary schools to counter the effects of low expectations and Eurocentric curricula in mainstream education. Organizations like the Black Cultural Archives, founded in 1981, worked to preserve and celebrate Black British history, challenging the erasure of Black contributions from national narratives. These efforts laid groundwork for later developments in multicultural education and decolonizing the curriculum. The 1990s also saw significant progress in political representation. The election of Britain's first Black MPs since the 1920s – Bernie Grant, Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng, and Keith Vaz – in 1987 represented a breakthrough. By the late 1990s, Black Britons were increasingly visible in local government, civil service, and public bodies. The 1991 census included an ethnic question for the first time, revealing that 5.5% of the population identified as ethnic minorities – a figure that would increase to 7.9% by 2001. Perhaps most significantly, this period saw the beginning of a fundamental reconsideration of British identity itself. The certainties of the imperial era, when Britishness was implicitly understood as white, gave way to more complex and inclusive understandings. This shift was reflected in everything from advertising to television programming, which increasingly portrayed Britain as a multicultural society. While racism remained a persistent reality, the foundations were being laid for a more inclusive conception of national identity that recognized the contributions of all Britons regardless of racial or ethnic background. By the end of the century, Britain's racial landscape had been transformed. The journey from the arrival of the Windrush to the dawn of the 21st century had been marked by struggle, resistance, and gradual progress toward equality. While significant challenges remained, Black Britons had established themselves as an integral part of the nation's social, cultural, and political fabric, fundamentally reshaping what it meant to be British in the post-imperial age.

Summary

The journey from imperial exploitation to citizenship rights reveals a fundamental tension that has persisted across centuries: the contradiction between Britain's self-image as a land of liberty and fair play, and the reality of racial discrimination experienced by Black people within its borders. From Tudor times through the Georgian slave trade, from Victorian imperialism to post-war immigration restrictions, this contradiction has manifested in different forms but remained essentially unchanged. Britain simultaneously benefited from Black labor, creativity, and military service while denying Black people full recognition as citizens. This pattern created a peculiar dynamic where Black Britons have consistently had to assert their humanity and belonging in a society that professed universal values while practicing exclusion. This history offers crucial lessons for contemporary multicultural societies worldwide. First, it demonstrates that diversity is not new – Britain has been multiracial for centuries, despite persistent attempts to portray it as a historically homogeneous nation. Second, it shows how racism adapts and evolves rather than simply disappearing with legal reforms. From the crude scientific racism of the Victorian era to the coded language of "immigration control" in the post-war period, exclusionary ideas have continuously found new expressions. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this history reveals the remarkable resilience and creativity with which Black Britons have responded to discrimination – building communities, creating culture, preserving their histories, and repeatedly challenging the nation to live up to its professed ideals. Understanding this long, complex relationship between Britain and its Black citizens is essential not just for historical accuracy, but for addressing the inequalities that persist today and building more inclusive societies for tomorrow.

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David Olusoga

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