Given the Windrush citizenship scandal
the holding of the What is Happening in
British Black History VIII Conference was timely, with its reminders of the long
presence of people of Africa heritage in Britain including during the Roman
period. Many
of the 40-odd attendees were themselves part of communities who knew or worked
with those who had come from the Caribbean on vessels such as the seminal Empire
Windrush in June 1948, and beforehand too.
The information on the black presence
in all its forms keeps growing as The Black
Tudors book by Miranda Kaufmann which was I had on sale, exemplifies. Visible,
too, is the exhibition revealing the
story of the 2,000 French African-Caribbean soldiers, women and children
captured in the West Indies and imprisoned at Portchester Castle, Hampshire, between
1793 and 1814. Curator Abigail Coppins (English Heritage) spoke about the
research behind the display, now available for all to see. (1)
Prisoners of War
Many of the prisoners were captured on
Guadeloupe. It is not yet clear how many stayed, including being recruited into
the British Army and Navy, at a time
when c10,000 – 15,000 black people are thought to have been in Britain.
Although there was no time to discuss
the details it was clear that there were many other prisoner of war depots and
soldiers out on parole in towns and villages across Britain during the Wars
with France. One example is the Norman Cross depot in Huntingdonshire. ‘Black
Jimmy’ was transferred from it to the hulks at Chatham; Jean Beautemps, born in Dominique, killed a French seaman fellow
prisoner there in August 1797; and Eustache was paroled from it to Ashbourne. A
number of Lascars imprisoned by the French at Dunkirk were exchanged for French
seamen at Norman Cross. (2)
Black soldiers
Previous research has identified two men from Guadeloupe
who joined the army. Jean Baptiste joined in 1813.
He was a labourer in Croydon. It is not known whether he had been captured and
had been paroled or later released. He was discharged in 1841 due to ill
health. The second was William Buckland was in the 5th Foot which recruited in Northumberland and later
became part of the Royal Fusiliers. He served from May 1810 to March 1817. Aged
31 he then enlisted for unlimited service in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Valenciennes in France in March 1817. He
was discharged as a private on pension in June 1823 due to ‘being worn out and
unable to march, together with impaired vision.’ In 1848 a William Buckland,
formerly of the 5th Foot, was awarded the Military General Service Medal
1793-1814, with bars for Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees and Toulouse. He drew
his pension initially in Limerick, and then later in Liverpool where he died in
December 1857.
Buckland’s details had been researched
by John Ellis, another of the speakers, who spoke about soldiers of African
origin from the 1700s to the 1840s. Black members of British regiments were
often trumpeters and drummers with the all-important role of sounding out the
battle orders as well as fighting. John Ellis, a school teacher, who pioneered
work on black soldiers in his MA dissertation in 2000. (3) His return to undertake
further research is welcome. He has found out more about Tommy Crawford
who settled in Darlington, whom I have written about, after discharge from the
army. (4)
Black Liberationists
People of African heritage came to
Britain, and Europe, for a wide variety of reasons, including for education and
as entertainers. One particular group were the African-American liberationists
like Frederick Douglass, Henry ‘Box’ Brown, William Wells Brown, and William
and Ellen Craft who spoke at hundreds of meetings around the country. They were
heavily dependent on the support of the abolitionist networks. Hannah Rose Murray,
a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, explained that Moses Roper spoke
very few times in London because his patron fell out with him. (5)
Although there has already been a lot
of work on Black Liberationists in Britain Hannah’s unique contribution plotting
the locations of the speaker engagements on maps, adds an enormous amount to
our knowledge of where they spoke, including in the tiny seaside hamlet of
Cullercoats on the Northumberland Coast, because Anna and Henry Richardson has
a seaside home there. As a historian of the Richardsons I did not know this. (6)
Wide British interest in the realities
of US pre-emancipation slavery and the problems faced after emancipation there meant
that campaigners came long after the end of the American Civil War (1861-65).
These inspiring campaigners included the Fisk Jubilee singers raising money for
their University, and Ida B. Wells raising support for her anti-lynching campaign.
As Jeff Green pointed out the interest in such lectures continued into the
1920s.
Black Americans in Victorian Britain
The variety of black people in the
Victorian period was augmented in a talk
by Jeff, whose book Black
Americans in Victorian Britain should be published in September, and by Joe
Williams discussing William Darby/Pablo Fanque the circus owner. Jeff ranged
across many people including Edward Lewis, the Negro Messmorist in the 1850s,
Agnes Foster, who went to Jamaica and founded the Salvation Army there, and
Clarissa Brown, one of the daughters of William Wells Brown. Jeff also used the
opportunity to show how he did his extensive research.
Yorkshire's Black History
Audrey Dewjee gave a presentation on
stories from Yorkshire’s Black History, which is currently an exhibition in
Beverley near Hull. (7)
After the end of the First World War the
race riots in 1919 and the E. D. Morel campaign against the use by the French
of African troops in their area of occupied Germany, highlighted the strong
strand of racism that had built up within British society as a result of
colonialism and imperialism. Owen Walsh (University of Leeds) spoke the Jamaican
and Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay. Although only in Britain for a
couple of years McKay wrote against Morel’s campaign in Sylvia Pankhurst’s Workers Dreadnaught newspaper. While McKay
was attracted to revolutionary ideas and to Communism, the question arises as
to what his relationship was with men like John Archer and Dr John Alcindor of
the African Progress Union, especially as Archer supported Battersea Labour
Party’s resistance to the ban and proscriptions on Communists which led in
February 1926 to its expulsion from the national Labour Party. (8)
Black Performers
In the 1930s the League of Coloured
Peoples adopted a non-revolutionary approach.
Audrey Dewjee told the attendees about one of its members George Brown who
became owner of John Kay & Sons (Huddersfield) Ltd (the very town in which
this Conference was being held). He was a friend of Paul Robeson. Catherine
Tackley (University of Liverpool), who had been involved British Black Jazz
project (9) in the discussed how musicians in Bute Town were able to obtain
work in in London in the 1930s including as members of Ken ‘Snakeships’
Johnson’s Dance Band. Later in 1958 Brown arranged for Robeson to entertain the factory children.
(From Sean Creighton collection)
The RAF and Windrush
Although there was no specific talk on
black servicemen in the Second World War, there were photos shown of RAF members
from the West Indies. Some were recruited for the RAF by an African airman on board
the Windrush when they returned to Britain 1948. Sharon Watson of the Phoenix
Dance Theatre showed extracts from the performance Windrush: Movement of the People. (10)
Identity
There was also a talk by Milton Brown
(University of Huddersfield and Kirklees Local TV) about projects researching
the views on identify of people who came from the West Indies, and the second generation
who grew up in the 1980s. The latter’s cultural experiences often centred
around sound systems, and those in Huddersfield were discussed by Professor Paul Ward
(Edge Hill College). (11)
Identity was also a theme in Black Men Walking, the play discussed by
its writer, rapper and beatboxer Testament. (12)
Slavery profits and music
Inevitably the issue of slavery and
the fact that many black people up to 1834 had come to Britain as enslaved
people or to escape slavery was raised. Professor
David Hunter (University of Texas) spoke about the use of slave generated money to fund music and culture, like
investment in an Assembly Hall, and the manufacture of a specialist form of
piano made for the daughter of a wealthy slave owner. Hans Sloane’s collection
in the British Museum included drum which had gone from Africa to Virginia,
which was included in former Museum Director Head Neil MacGregor’s History of the World in 100 objects
series. (13)
George Handel and John Gay were shareholders
in the Royal Africa Company. Jews harps were made in large qualities in Britain
using metal from the Principio Mine in America which used slave labour, while the
harps were part of the range of goods used to buy slaves in Africa. Conference
attendees gasped when they heard that while landowner and MP Peter Beckford was
on his Grand Tour he had actually purchased the 14 year old Italian composer
Muzio Clementi from his father.
Strengths and weaknesses of the Conference
This was perhaps the best WHBBH
conference so far in terms of new information and ways of looking at the
material, sharing information, seeing interlinks, without some of the
theoretical angst that sometimes dominates gatherings held in London.
A major problem is the format is too
many talks and not enough time for
discussion. Information sharing and networking has to take place quickly over
tea and coffee, lunch and at the post talks drinks, which does not allow
everyone to get to know each other.
This causes frustration because issues people want to discuss in
details such as how to get the growing information about the black presence
into schools cannot be discussed in detail, although it was clear that telling
stories through plays, music, and other art forms is an important approach. Nor was there time to
explore in more detail Jeff Green’s cautioning about how sources should be used.
An agenda for the next Conference
So how could the next Conference in
the series be organised? I suggest small group discussions around such themes
as (1) research sources and interpretation; (2) dissemination; (3) networking
and collaboration; and (4) reaching into schools and Universities.
The themes should be introduced by 2
key speakers. The day could be structured so that there were four sessions of
small groups, with the composition of each group being mixed up so more people
get to engage with each other. The day would end with a report back of conclusions
and action points – and people on the stage and in the audience would make kind
use of many microphones. Possibly also the room layout could be more
democratic: night-club style seating not university lecture theatre.
Thanks
to Jeff Green and Jo Stanley for helpful comments on a draft of this article.
For
comments by other attendees at the Conference see
http://historycalroots.com/archives/959
Footnotes
(2) Thomas
James Walker. The depot for Prisoners of War at Norman Cross Huntingdonshire 1796 to
1816. Constable & Co. 1913. I found this book in a second hand bookshop
last year.
(3) The Visual Representation, Role and Origin
of Black Soldiers in British Army Regiments during the Early Nineteenth
Century. University of Nottingham). Ellis wrote A Revolutionary Activist in His Own Cause; William Afflick of the 10th
Hussars (Westminster History Review. No.5. 2003).
See also https://archive.is/7StIz & his 2009
posting at https://blackpresence.co.uk/black-soldiers-in-the-british-army-john-ellis.
(4) I mention Crawford in my article Black People in the North East (North East Labour Journal. Vol. 39.
2009) http://collectionsprojects.org.uk/slavery/_files/research-zone/NorthEastHistoryBookIssue39.pdf
(6) Anna
& Henry Richardson. Newcastle Quaker
Anti-slavery, Peace and Animal Rights journalism. Topic 55. North East
Popular Politics database. www.ppp.nelh.net
(put ‘55’ into the search box. For details of the content of their journals put
‘Richardson’ into the search box. My article about the Richardsons Slavery is Sustained by the Purchase of its
Productions: The Slave; His Wrongs and Their Remedy (1851-1856) in Ulrich
Pallua, Adrian Knapp and Andreas Exenberger (Eds.) (Re)Figuring Human Enslavement: Images of Power, Violence and
Resistance. (Innsbruck University. Edition Weltordnung – Religion – Gewalt
5) is downloadable at http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=503819
(8) Sean
Creighton. John Archer. Battersea’s Blck
Progressive and Labour Activist 1863-1932. (History & Social Action
Publications. London. 2014)
(9) Jason Toynbee and Catherine Tackley. Black British Jazz: Routes, Ownership and
Performance (Ashgate. Farnham. 2014).
A trailer can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjjEZG0ygwA
and audience reactions at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP0aamXAInI
Postscript
(1) In
our chats over supper and breakfast in Huddersfield and at the Conference Jeff
Green told me that the Royal College of Music’s digital exhibition on the
internet includes the image of the rules and members of the United African
League formed in 1903. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Dr John Alcindor and Robert Broadhurst
was a member of the Executive and R. Archer (probably John Richard Archer of
Note (8) above) was Secretary. Archer, Alcindor and Broadhurst went on to be
members of the African Progress Union established in 1918. The details about
the League appears to be new information but little more can be added to what
is shown. (http://www.rcm.ac.uk/about/news/all/2017-10-16blackhistorymonth.aspx;
see also Samuel Coleridge-Taylor newsletter No. 52 (May 2018) at https://sites.google.com/site/samuelcoleridgetaylornetwork/newsletter)
(2) Two
days later I was on a visit to Sheffield
Park in Sussex. One of the people in the group was the great grandson of an
African sailor who settled and married an English woman in Liverpool. He is
just one of the growing number of white looking people who know or are
realising that they have African heritage.
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