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The eighteenth-century black African poet Phillis Wheatley has an entry in Wikipedia and her poems are available on Project Gutenberg.

From ‘On Imagination’

Thy various works, imperial queen, we see,
How bright their forms! how deck’d with pomp by thee!
Thy wond’rous acts in beauteous order stand,
And all attest how potent is thine hand.

From Helicon’s refulgent heights attend,
Ye sacred choir, and my attempts befriend:
To tell her glories with a faithful tongue,
Ye blooming graces, triumph in my song.

Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies,
Till some lov’d objects strikes her wand’ring eyes,
Whose silken fetters all the senses bind,
And soft captivity involves the mind.

Imagination! who can sing thy force?
Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?
Soaring though air to find the bright abode,
Th’empyreal palace of the thund’ring God,
We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,
And leave the rolling universe behin:
From star to star the mental optics rove,
Measure the skies, and range the realms above.
There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,
Or with new worlds amaze th’ unbounded soul.

Though Winter frowns to Fancy’s raptur’d eyes
The fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise;
The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,
And bid their waters murmur o’er the sands.
Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign,
And with her flow’ry riches deck the plain;
Sylvanus may diffuse his honours round,
And all the forest may with leaves be crown’d;
Show’rs may descend, and dews their gems disclose,
And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose.

Such is thy pow’r, nor are thine orders vain,
O thou the leader of the mental train:
In full perfection all thy works are wrought,
And thine the sceptre o’er the realms of thought.
Before thy throne the subject-passions bow,
Of subject-passions sov’reign ruler Thou,
At thy command joy rushes on the heart,
And through the glowing veins the spirits dart.

Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784)

published in Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral (1773)

tags: imagination | race | ibarw | history

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Another post for International Blog against Racism Week.

Black Tom may be a kick-ass Cockney hero, but the world he lives in is very much one in which black people like himself are pushed to the margins of society. His ‘Parents had nothing ... but what they begg’d or stole’, and the only training Tom gets is in becoming a thief, like his father. In the last story in the book, Tom meets another black man, who has been a servant, but has lost his job, and ‘has been out of employment a long time, so long that he [has] spent all his Money, and pawn’d most of his Apparel’.

What would become of a black woman who found herself out of a job and unable to find another? We can glimpse the most likely answer in a publication called The Wandering Whore, which was published as an irregular serial in 1660–1661. The Wandering Whore offers (mild) pornography and titillation, under the thin guise of exposing vice. Each issue ends with an ever-expanding list of bawds (madams), ‘Common Whores’ and pimps. In his address to the reader, the publisher claims that his intention was not to encourage ‘Vice and Profaneness’ but ‘to discover the persons’ and warn the unwary against them. However, he conceals his name, which suggests that he does not believe that this piece of hypocrisy is really going to protect him from the law. It is pretty clear that he is expecting to sell copies to men who want some clues on how to find a prostitute.

Several of the names on his lists are those of real people, and I see no reason to doubt that the rest are too. Some of the prostitutes are listed under what seem to be their own real names, but others were using what are clearly professional names: ‘Mrs Cupid’, ‘Green Mall’ (real name Joan Godfrey), ‘Fair Rosamond’ (who had named herself after a tragic heroine from English folk-history) and, memorably, ‘Sugar C—t’. One of the women is listed under the name of ‘Queen of Morocco’. I think we may be certain she was black.* The name she chose to call herself suggests a certain pride and swagger. That’s really all we know.

*In 1624 a list of household servants employed at Knole in Kent included ‘John Morockoe, a Blackamoor’ – Vita Sackville-West, Knole and the Sackvilles.

race | ibarw | history

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Many people know that the ancestors of the Romany came originally from India, a point established long ago by philologists who studied the Romany language. However, I think it is rather less well known that when they first arrived in Western Europe their leaders were received by kings as visiting nobility and treated with respect and ceremony.

There exists a very interesting official letter of 1505 in which the King of Scotland writes to the King of Denmark to recommend to his hospitality Anthony Gagino, ‘a count from Little Egypt’ . I would love to post it here; unfortunately, it is in Latin, and I haven’t got time to translate it right now. Maybe some point in the future.

The ‘Egyptians’ had a chequered history in sixteenth-century Scotland. But as late as 1553, it was still possible for a gypsy leader to be named in a royal writ as ‘oure lovit Johne Faw, lord and erle of Litill Egept’: our beloved John Faw (or Faa), lord and earl of Little Egypt.

The letter was written in the name of Queen Mary, who was then a minor, on the authority of her regent, James Hamilton, earl of Arran:

Marie, be the grace of God Quene of Scottis, to oure Shireffis of Edinburgh principal and within the constabularie of Hadingtoun, Bervik, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Perth, Forfar, Fife, ( long list of towns and local authorities ) and to all utheris Shireffis, Stewartis, Provestis, Aldermen, and Baillies within oure realme, Greting:

fforsamekill as it is humblie menit and schewin to us and oure derrest cousing and tutour, James, Duke of Chettellarault, erle of Arrane, lord Hammiltoun, protectour and governour of oure realme, be oure lovit Johne Faw, lord and erle of Litill Egept, that quhair he obtenit umquhyIe oure derrest faderis letres of gude mynd, quham God assolze, under his grete seill direct to you all and sindry oure saidis shireffis, stewartis, baillies, provestis, baillies, and aldermen of oure burrowis, and to all and sindry uthiris havand auctorite within oure realme, to assist to him in executioun of justice upoun his cumpany and folkis conforme to the lawis of Egipt, and in punissing of all thame that rebellis agane him.

( More )

published by David MacRitchie in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, January 1891

[When reading sixteenth-century Scots it is useful to remember that English ‘wh’ becomes ‘quh’, as in ‘quhair’, ‘where’, and, a bit more obviously, English plural ‘s’ becomes ‘is’, as in ‘Shireffis’. Oh, and ‘quhilk’ means ‘which’.]

race | ibarw | history

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A popular form of writing in the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries was the ‘jest-biography’. A typical jest-biography is a piece of cheap fiction, published in pamphlet form, telling the life story of a trickster or rogue in a series of episodes. In most of these episodes he (very occasionally she) has an encounter with some dupe, victim or enemy, usually coming out on top. The story below comes from a pamphlet of this type, The Unlucky citizen, or, A pleasant history of the life of Black Tom, published in the later Restoration period.

First, the title: in this context, at this date, ‘unlucky’ means ‘mischievous’ rather than ‘unfortunate’. Black Tom, the hero/anti-hero, is the London-born son of a black father, who was brought to England as a slave, and an English mother. Tom is a thief and robber, but he is not a villain. His activities are nowhere explicitly condemned. However, the author twice finds it necessary to warn the reader against imitating Tom’s activities. This suggests to me that a juvenile readership is expected. Tom is a comic-book hero in the days before children’s comics. His enemies are the city watchmen, whose job was to patrol the streets to keep them safe at night. Watchmen were officious, they were always on the look out for tips, which often shaded into bribes, and they were not very popular. In the story below, the watchman-victim is also a miser, a hoarder, mean with his money. Misers were culturally disapproved of and were highly unpopular. We can safely imagine the original readers of this story cheering Tom on:

Black Tom had not lain long still, but he deviseth a new Project to take him a Lodging at the Horse-Ferry in Westminster; he had not been above two days, but his Fingers itched to be at work. Now, there liv’d a certain watchman hard by, that had gotten a considerable quantity of wealth, who was an old dry Batchelor that liv’d alone, and one that liv’d more upon looking on his Coin, than making use on it; for he had at any time rather beg, then part with a Farthing of Money. Now Tom was plotting how he might get this Money from this old Miser: So Tom lay a bed most part of that morning, contriving on his Pillar (sic), but getting up, walks towards the Watch-mans House, where he found him standing at the door, makes several bows and cringes, and afterwards made him this Speech.

Gwide Maystre, Me non Inglant by mine Phace, none Inglant by mine Twang: Me de great strawnger of Aphric, me de pherry phull of Maney; me sa have van Hundred Poonds in mine Phocquet, no phlace to put it shafe, you have de gwide Lodgings; let me de gwide me give gwide Maney.

The old Miser lik’d this speech very well, and was resolved (as he was a Stranger) to make him pay dearly for his Lodging; so Black Tom gave him twenty shillings before-hand, and was to pay him twenty shillings every Saturday Night. But Black Tom had not been long there before the old Man was to go out upon the Watch, and that Night Black Tom conveyed a Coffer out of his House, wherein the Old Man’s Treasure lay, and ne’er returned to his Lodging more.

( What happened next )

After this, Black Tom becomes the terror of the watchmen of London, whom he holds up and robs with impunity. In the final story, he meets a poor black servant who has lost his job and after forcing the watchmen to give the man some money, teaches him ‘his Trade’ of shaking down the watchmen. After this, he leaves the man to take over as the new Black Tom, while he himself goes off to Venice with his loot, with the aim of turning himself into a merchant.

from The Unlucky citizen, or, A pleasant history of the life of Black Tom (1686)

race | ibarw | history

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One of the scandals of 1664 was the burglary of Thomas Tryon, a wealthy merchant of London, by his friend James Turner, a somewhat shady businessman. This is a passage from a pamphlet ‘life’ of Turner published after he was hanged:

About September 1662, Colonel* James Turner sent to a citizen of London to come to him to the Castle Tavern in Cornhill, who found a gentleman with the said Turner, to whom two captains also came ... Turner swore very much without any provocation; the citizen told him if he continued to swear, he would not stay in his company. Whiles they were drinking a blackamoor boy of some fourteen years of age brought pipes** and small beer. Turner swore and cursed the boy, and said he was like the Devil, for which the company did much reprove him. The drawer*** standing by said the blackamoor was to be baptized the next Lord’s day with his master’s child, his wife then lying in. The citizen, to try the blackamoor’s fitness for baptism, asked him who made him, who answered, “God.” Turner very furiously replied and swore desperately the Devil made him, earnestly saying and swearing, “You rogue, the Devil made you, God never made you.” The citizen desired Turner to forbear his swearing, and had much ado to get him to be quiet whilst he asked him further interrogatories. The blackmoor replied Christian-like answers to the questions of who redeemed him, who sanctified and preserved him, wherefore God made him, and several other Christian-like answers the boy gave, till he came to answer to the priestly, prophetical and kingly office of Christ. Turner still continued vehemently cursing and swearing against the boy. It being now near ten o’ clock at night, the four gentlemen present, and also the drawer and the blackamoor, Turner sitting with his face against the casement, therein came a mighty great flap or stroke upon the window as if two great wings would have drove the window into the room upon the company, which made them all in a great amazement, whereupon the citizen ran to the window, opened the casement, but could not see any thing as the cause, not a quarrel**** broke, nor any dirt upon the window. Turner gave over cursing and swearing, and sat as a man ready to sink into the ground, that one of the captains told Turner, this is because of your swearing and cursing. The window was near a story from the yard which belonged to the tavern, and a shed of boards from it downward, that in no probability any man did it.

*Turner was a lieutenant-colonel in the London militia

**pipes: clay tobacco-pipes, ready filled

***drawer: wine-drawer

****diamond-shaped pane of glass

from The Triumph of Truth (1664)

Though the moral of this passage concerns Turner’s habit of swearing, it is clear that his extreme racism is also not approved of. For Turner, the black boy is simply not human. The boy’s fellow-servant, the drawer, stands up for him. He tells the company that the boy is soon to be baptized, at the same time as his master’s new baby, indeed. This tells us a little bit about the master and his wife too. It was common for seventeenth-century household servants to be treated, up to a point, as members of the family. This boy had probably been brought to England as a slave (since he is unbaptized, it seems fairly certain he has come from somewhere else). He may or may not be considered to be a slave by his present master: at this date there was a lot of legal uncertainty about the precise status of slaves once they had been brought to England. But it seems clear that to the household he lives in he is a human being. His reception into the Church of England will put a seal on his acceptance as fully human as well as being an important mark of his assimilation into the community. The ‘citizen’ (who may have been the writer’s source for this anecdote) treats the boy as potentially human, subject to his giving satisfactory answers to a Christian catechism. As for the boy – the story shows him intent on satisfying the citizen, this latest judge of his humanity.

race | ibarw | history

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oursin has noted that it is 2007 International Blog Against Racism Week.

In his excellent book Staying Power: the History of Black People in Britain (1984) Peter Fryer points out that as early as the mid-third century CE there was a numerus or military division of ‘Moors’, North Africans, stationed on Hadrian’s Wall.

This is recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum, an official register of Roman officials, governors and military commanders.

The entry reads:

Sub Dispositione viri spectabilis Ducis Britanniarum:

***

Per Lineam Valli:

***

Praefectus Numeri Maurorum Aurelianorum. Aballaba.

Translation:

At the disposal of the worthy man the Duke (Commander) of the Britains:

[list of military officers, with their commands]

Along the line of the Wall:

[A further list of officers and commands, including]

The Prefect of the Division of the Aurelian Moors. [Stationed at] Burgh-by-Sands, Cumbria.

These troops will have been recruited in the Roman provinces of Africa and named after one of the Emperors (possibly Marcus Aurelius [121–180]).

race | ibarw | history

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The leaves that hung but never grew

Imagination

The Queen of Morocco

John Faw, lord and earl of Little Egypt

The Life of Black Tom

Racism and assimilation in Restoration London

Black Romans in Britain

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