Dear Peter,

In addition to the names of key historians who have published work on black
history in the UK, provided by Marika Sherwood, please find below references
to a few publications which might also prove useful to people wanting a
basic overview of black British history:

*       File, Nigel and Power, Chris (1981) Black Settlers in Britain
1555-1958, London: Heinemann.
*       Fryer, Peter (1993) Aspects of British Black History. London: Index
Books. (NB: Content includes the following chapters: (1) The politics of
British black history; (2) How Britain became 'Great Britain': the
triangular trade; (3) How Britain became 'Great Britain': the plunder and
de-industrialisation of India; (4) The history of English racism; (5)
Resistance (i.e. focussing on black resistance to slavery and British rule
in the Caribbean, as well as the resistance of South Asian peoples to
British rule in India); (6) Black radicals in the early British
working-class movement.)
*       Fryer, Peter (1984) Staying Power: the History of Black People in
Britain. London: Pluto Press
*       Green, Jeffrey (2000) Black People in Britain Before the Windrush,
in History Today Vol. 50, No. 10, pp. 29-35. (NB: Altho' this article
primarily focuses on Black Victorians and Edwardians in Britain, the
introductory sections do give an overview of Black Britain in the 18th and
early 19th centuries. Conveniently the full-text is also freely available
online via the 'Black Presence' web site at
http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/html/jeff_green.htm.
*       Kershaw, Roger and Pearsall, Mark (2000) Immigrants and Aliens: a
Guide to Sources on UK Immigration and Citizenship. Kew: Public Record
Office readers' guide. No. 22 (NB: This book primarily features summaries of
'primary source' records within the PRO's Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
Home Office, Admiralty and Colonial Office collections, c.18-20th century,
but the book does also provide some details about other very old records
that document a black presence in Britain dating from as early as the 16th
century (i.e. found in Privy Council manuscripts, etc.)
*       Philips, Mike (2001) London crossings: a biography of Black Britain,
London: Continuum
*       Ramdin, Ron (1987) The Making of the black working class in Britain.
Aldershot: Wildwood House
*       Ramdin, Ron (1999) Reimaging Britain: five hundred years of Black
and Asian history. London: Pluto Press
*       Walvin, James (1973) Black and White: the Negro and English Society,
1555-1945, London: Allen Lane.

...and various articles in the journal 'Immigrants and Minorities' (ISSN:
0261-9288, published by Frank Cass): for example, a very well researched
article that I read recently in I&M - when doing some research on the
history of black and Asian peoples in Glasgow - was a piece by Ian Duffield
entitled 'Identity, community and the lived experience of Black Scots from
the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, in Immigrants and
Minorities, Vol. 11 (2), p.105-129.

If you are interested in visual and literary sources as evidence of a black
British presence, you might also be interested in the following works:
*       Dabydeen, David (1987) Hogarth's Blacks: Images of Blacks in
Eighteenth Century English Art, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
*       De La Mothe, Gordon (1993) Reconstructing the Black Image.
Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books (NB: this book focuses on black history
throughout Europe in general, not just on UK sources!)

There are many other books and articles I could recommend to you (+ the list
members in general), but the selection given above are good starting
points...

Lastly, regarding UK statistics on the black population, there are some
sources (a few available via the web) that give plausible estimates of the
black population before 1800. For example, the National Museums and
Galleries on Merseyside web site at
http://www.nmgm.org.uk/maritime/slavery/europeframeset.html quotes from
slavery sources that indicate a black population in Britain during the
mid-18th century of some 10,000+ people. Also, the researcher Nigel File,
writing in the book 'Black Settlers in Britain: 1555-1958' refers to the
following sources:
'Prince Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp (London, 1828)' where the
abolitionist, Sharp, estimates a black population in London as 20,000 in
1768.
Extract from 'The Gentleman's Magazine', Vol. 34, 1764, p. 493 "The practice
of importing Negroe [sic] servants into these kingdoms is said to be a
grievance that requires a remedy, and yet it is everyday encouraged,
insomuch that the number in this metropolis only is supposed to be near
20,000; the main objections to their importation is that they cease to
consider themselves as slaves in this free country..." etc.

Hope this is useful...
Kind regards
Carol


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Freshwater [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 03 July 2002 11:27 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Fw: conference next year
>
>
> Who are the current historians of the Black diaspora in Britain?  The
> names that spring to my mind are those of George Shepperson, Terence
> Ranger, Paul Edwards and others of their generation, who are
> now retired
> or dead.
>
> How large and extensive was the black population of Britain before the
> C18?  Was it really more than a number of relatively isolated
> accidentals, including servants and courtiers, occasional seamen,
> planters' women and children, traders and emissaries, and so
> forth.  Has
> anyone done for the ex-African people in Britain what Rozina
> Visram has
> done for the Asian peoples, and pulled together what information there
> is?
>
> I just don't know, and would be glad of information.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Peter Freshwater
>
>
> In message <008e01c22212$fdbd6a00$813787d9@99fr10j>, Marika Sherwood
> <[log in to unmask]> writes
> >Everyone,
> >In my experience in the US it is either forgotten or ignored
> that the UK has
> >had a Black population for longer than the one in the USA,
> and that we have
> >had a settlement of people from the subcontinent since the
> 18th century.
> >Could we get it together to suggest a panel?
> >(I've not asked them if there is any funding available for
> travel etc for
> >those of us not supported by institutions.)
> >Marika Sherwood
>
> --
> Peter B. Freshwater
> Edinburgh, Scotland
> Email [log in to unmask]
>