BLACK LIVES IN GEORGIAN LONDON Michael Bundock explores the remarkable story of black men and women in eighteenth-century London and describes the challenges he faced as a biographer in bringing individuals to life On 18 February 1764, alongside the reports of a fire at a mast-maker’s yard and an escape from the King’s Bench Prison in Southwark, the London Chronicle reported a social event: ‘Among the sundry fashionable routs or clubs that are held in town, that of the Blacks or Negro servants is not the least. On Wednesday night last no less than fiftyseven of them, men and women, supped, drank and entertained themselves with dancing and music, consisting of violins, French horns, and other instruments, at a public-house in Fleet Street, till four in the morning. No Whites were allowed to be present, for all the performers were Blacks. ’ It is a striking account, an occasion when a group of exclusively black men and women came together in the heart of London for an evening of food, drink, music and dancing. The gathering was obviously considered newsworthy, but the report suggests that it was not a one-off event. This news item provides a snapshot of the London black community in the mid-eighteenth century. There are other reports of similar entertainments: John Baker, Solicitor-General for St Kitts, recorded in his diary an occasion when, returning to his London home late at night, he found that his black servant Jack Beef was not there, having ‘gone out to a ball of blacks’. Not all such gatherings were for social purposes, at 18 THE LONDON LIBRARY MAGAZINE
least if their critics are to be believed: in a diatribe against the black population the pro-slavery writer Philip Thicknesse complained in 1778 that ‘London abounds with an incredible number of these black men, who have clubs to support those who are out of place’ . Some saw such meetings as being more political than charitable – in 1768 the magistrate
Sir John Fielding expressed his concern at the number of slaves being brought from the colonies who ‘enter into societies and make it their business to corrupt and dissatisfy the mind of every black servant that comes to England’ . There are many visual reminders of black Londoners of the time, in the form of paintings, sketches and caricatures. In
John Collett, May Morning, c.1760. © Museum of London.
