Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today we
Speaker 1: are going to talk about Ignatius Sancho, who, among a
Speaker 1: number of other firsts, was the first black Britain to
Speaker 1: vote in parliamentary election. That happened in seventeen seventy four.
Speaker 1: He became something of a celebrity in eighteenth century London,
Speaker 1: but documentation of his life, especially his early life, is
Speaker 1: a little bit spotty. Today, first we should talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the world that Ignatius Sancho lived in.
Speaker 1: During his lifetime, England's population grew from about six and
Speaker 1: a half to about seven million people, and somewhere between
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand and twenty thousand of them were black. Most
Speaker 1: of England's black population lived in cities, with two thirds
Speaker 1: or more living in London. But these embers are really
Speaker 1: really approximate. The first British census wasn't conducted until eighteen
Speaker 1: o one, so these are definitely estimations. Slavery was legal
Speaker 1: and practiced in England, so some of this population that
Speaker 1: we're talking about was enslaved, many of England's black population
Speaker 1: worked as household staff. Wealthy people considered it fashionable to
Speaker 1: have specifically black household help, whether enslaved or free. One
Speaker 1: trend was to have a black valet or maid who
Speaker 1: acted as a personal assistant or a traveling companion, as
Speaker 1: well as a conversation piece for other white aristocrats. I
Speaker 1: said valet instead of valet, because I've been watching a
Speaker 1: lot of Downton Nattie. Yeah, that's how you do. Of course,
Speaker 1: regardless of whether they were free or enslaved, not every
Speaker 1: black person in England was doing domestic work. Many were
Speaker 1: or had been sailors, and many former sailors worked as
Speaker 1: laborers or doc workers. Black workers also took industrial jobs
Speaker 1: in cities, including things like processing and repackaging. Import had
Speaker 1: goods like sugar and tobacco which had been grown in
Speaker 1: the America's using enslave labor. Eighteenth century England was also
Speaker 1: home to black performers and musicians, as well as black
Speaker 1: music teachers and composers. Although some were recruited or conscripted
Speaker 1: for things like regimental bands, it wasn't particularly common for
Speaker 1: black performers to gain access to other white ensembles or
Speaker 1: to white performance spaces. Instead, many black musicians performed at
Speaker 1: home and within an evolving black social scene, and the
Speaker 1: words of a seventeen sixty four article in the London
Speaker 1: Chronicle quote among the sundry fashionable routes or clubs that
Speaker 1: are held in town, that of the blacks or the
Speaker 1: Negro servants is not the least. On Wednesday last no
Speaker 1: less than fifty seven of them, men and women supt
Speaker 1: drank and entertained themselves with dancing and music consisting of violins,
Speaker 1: French horns and other instruments at a public house in
Speaker 1: Fleet Street till four in the morning. No whites were
Speaker 1: allowed to be present, for all the performers were all black.
Speaker 1: While most of England's black population had come or been
Speaker 1: brought from the America's and the Caribbean, some had arrived
Speaker 1: from Africa. This included diplomats and dignitaries from African nations,
Speaker 1: and students whose families had sent them to English universities
Speaker 1: to study. All of this together meant that England's black
Speaker 1: population in the eighteenth century was predominantly male. It was
Speaker 1: not uncommon for free black men to marry working class
Speaker 1: white women During Ignatius Sancho's lifetime, England was also the
Speaker 1: dominant force and the trans atlantic slave trade. Slaveships operated
Speaker 1: from numerous British ports, including London, and while Ignatius Sancho
Speaker 1: was alive, the two largest slave ports were Bristol and Liverpool.
Speaker 1: A vast amount of British wealth came directly from this
Speaker 1: trade and from goods produced in the Caribbean and the
Speaker 1: Americas using enslaved labor. A movement for the abolition of
Speaker 1: slavery and the slave trade started to evolve in Britain
Speaker 1: during Sancho's lifetime, although formal organizations with the goal, including
Speaker 1: the Sons of Africa, were not established until after his death. However,
Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy two, William Murray, the first Earl of
Speaker 1: Mansfield and the Lord Chief Justice of Britain, issued a
Speaker 1: ruling in the Somerset Case which ruled the enslaved people
Speaker 1: who escaped their enslavement in England could not be captured
Speaker 1: and returned to slavery abroad. Although many enslaved people living
Speaker 1: at the time interpreted this as having ended slavery entirely,
Speaker 1: its real effects were much more limited than that, and
Speaker 1: we talked about this ruling previously in our episode three,
Speaker 1: Astonishing bells Ignatious Sancho had connections to all of this history,
Speaker 1: but as we noted, some of the details are spotty.
Speaker 1: Brief glimpses of his last few years survived thanks to
Speaker 1: some published letters. We're going to talk about those letters
Speaker 1: more later, but beyond that, his first biographer was Welsh
Speaker 1: barrister and politician Joseph Checkel, whose brief account of Sancho's
Speaker 1: life was published with the letters. For the first several
Speaker 1: printings of these letters, this biography was published anonymously. Jekyll's
Speaker 1: name was finally included in the fifth edition, which came
Speaker 1: out in eighteen oh three. Joseph Jekyl was born in
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty four, which would have made him about twenty
Speaker 1: six when Sancho died, and in the years after Sancho's
Speaker 1: death he became a member of Parliament. In terms of
Speaker 1: when both men were living, Jackal studied at Oxford in
Speaker 1: the late seventeen sixties and was called to the bar
Speaker 1: at Lincoln's Inn in London in seventeen seventy eight. During
Speaker 1: those same years, Sancho was living and working in London,
Speaker 1: including at a grocery that became a gathering place for
Speaker 1: writers and musicians and a fashionable place for affluent people
Speaker 1: to be seen shopping because of the novelty of its
Speaker 1: black proprietor. So it's definitely within the realm of possibility
Speaker 1: that these two men did know each other, or that
Speaker 1: they at least met. And we do have a surviving
Speaker 1: letter from Sancho's son, William, who wrote to Jekyl to
Speaker 1: thank him for some service to their family and for
Speaker 1: some corrections. That's his word, and that's probably in reference
Speaker 1: to footnotes that appear in the eighteen or three edition
Speaker 1: of Sancho's Letters. So it's possible that Jackal's knowledge of
Speaker 1: Sancho's life came from Sancho himself or from his family.
Speaker 1: But a lot of what he describes is really impossible
Speaker 1: to corroborate, and some of it just contradicts documentation that
Speaker 1: does exist. Jackal also doesn't mention some of the most
Speaker 1: notable parts of Sancho's life, while also including other details
Speaker 1: that seem pretty improbable. Also, it's clear that in writing
Speaker 1: and publishing this biography, Jekyll was trying to contradict racist
Speaker 1: ideas that were used to justify the institution of slavery,
Speaker 1: instead showing Sancho as a human being withinnate worse, here
Speaker 1: is a quote. He who surveys the extent of intellect
Speaker 1: to which Ignatious Sancho had attained by self education, will
Speaker 1: perhaps conclude that the perfection of the reasoning faculties does
Speaker 1: not depend on a peculiar confirmation of the skull or
Speaker 1: the color of a common integument. In defiance of that
Speaker 1: wild opinion which says a learned writer of these times
Speaker 1: restrains the operations of the mind to particular regions, and
Speaker 1: supposes that a luckless mortal may be born in a
Speaker 1: degree of latitude too high or too low for wisdom
Speaker 1: or for wit. So to add a little explanation to that,
Speaker 1: the learned writer of these times that he references was
Speaker 1: Samuel Johnson, who was writing about John Milton when he
Speaker 1: made that comment. And as a side note that e.
Speaker 1: Ten oh three edition of Sancho's Letters also included this
Speaker 1: statement quote. Dr Johnson had promised to write the life
Speaker 1: of Ignatius Sancho, which afterwards he neglected to do, and
Speaker 1: it was accordingly written by Mr jekyll An imitation of
Speaker 1: Dr Johnson's style. In other words, Joseph Jekyl thought Ignatius
Speaker 1: Sancho was notable enough to have been written about by
Speaker 1: Samuel Johnson, regardless of whether Johnson ever specifically said that.
Speaker 1: At the same time, even though Jackal seems too have
Speaker 1: been motivated by reinforcing the intrinsic humanity of a black
Speaker 1: man living in eighteenth century England and dispelling racist ideas,
Speaker 1: he also repeats some of the day's racist stereotypes about Africans.
Speaker 1: That makes it hard to figure out which parts of
Speaker 1: his account are real and which are exaggerated, And at
Speaker 1: this point it is just not possible to know where
Speaker 1: any of his information came from. Having gotten through all
Speaker 1: that context, we will get to what we know, or
Speaker 1: at least what we think we know, about Ignatius Sancho's
Speaker 1: life after a sponsor break. Joseph Checkel's biography describes Ignacious
Speaker 1: Sancho as being born on a slave ship in seventeen
Speaker 1: twenty nine, en route from Guinea and West Africa to
Speaker 1: Cartagena and Columbia. This very earliest moment in his account
Speaker 1: of Sancho's life is also the very first thing that
Speaker 1: seems to be undermined by the actual historical rec heard
Speaker 1: because there was not a ship that made that particular
Speaker 1: voyage in seventeen twenty nine. For his part, in a
Speaker 1: letter written in seventeen eighty, Sancho described himself as quote
Speaker 1: born in Africa that suggested that he was or at
Speaker 1: least believe that he was born in Africa. Jackal goes
Speaker 1: on to say that Sancho was named Ignacious at his baptism,
Speaker 1: which was performed by the bishop, but he doesn't really
Speaker 1: elaborate on what might have prompted a bishop to baptize
Speaker 1: an enslaved baby. According to Jekyl, Ignatius's mother died while
Speaker 1: he was still a baby, and his father took his
Speaker 1: own life rather than being enslaved. Then, when Ignacious was
Speaker 1: between two and three, his enslaver took him to England
Speaker 1: and gave him to quote three maiden sisters resident at Greenwich.
Speaker 1: According to historian Anne Dingsdale, this may have been Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: Susannah and Barbara Legg, who lived in Blackheath, which is
Speaker 1: adjacent to Greenwich. That is the right number of sisters
Speaker 1: and roughly the right location, but this is still conjecture.
Speaker 1: Another conjecture is that the young Ignacious Sancho is depicted
Speaker 1: in the painting Taste in High Life Bypath podcast subject
Speaker 1: William Hogarth. That painting was completed in the seventeen forties
Speaker 1: and it satirizes upper class women in their fashion choices.
Speaker 1: Seated in a chair. On the left side of the
Speaker 1: canvas in this painting is a black page. The Yale
Speaker 1: Center for British Art describes this identification as this page
Speaker 1: and the painting as Ignatious Sancho as traditional but implausible. Listen,
Speaker 1: everybody's always said it, but it really doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: Jackal also says these three sisters were the ones who
Speaker 1: gave Ignacious the last name of Sancho because they thought
Speaker 1: that he resembled Don Quixote, Squire Sancho Panza. In Spanish,
Speaker 1: ponza means belly, and it stems from the Latin word
Speaker 1: for paunch. This makes Sancho's name a little bit complicated.
Speaker 1: It is the name he used his whole life, and
Speaker 1: later on he called his daughters his sent Sinetta's, but
Speaker 1: it was a name that was given to him as
Speaker 1: an insult because of his weight. Magnatius Sancho described his
Speaker 1: early years this way in a letter to Lawrence Stern,
Speaker 1: the author of the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
Speaker 1: gentleman quote, the first part of my life was rather unlucky,
Speaker 1: as I was placed in a family who judged ignorance
Speaker 1: the best and only security for obedience. A little reading
Speaker 1: and writing I got by unwearied application. The latter part
Speaker 1: of my life has been, through God's blessing, truly fortunate,
Speaker 1: having spent it in the service of one of the
Speaker 1: best and greatest families in the Kingdom. My chief pleasure
Speaker 1: has been books philanthropy. I adore. The best and greatest
Speaker 1: family seems to be the House of Montague, beginning with John,
Speaker 1: second Duke of Montagu. The Duke had previously been Governor
Speaker 1: of Jamaica, and one of his residences in England was
Speaker 1: Montague House in Blackheath, just across from the leg Sisters.
Speaker 1: Earlier in his life, the Duke had reportedly funded the
Speaker 1: education of Francis Williams, an enslaved man from Jamaica, although
Speaker 1: Williams's attendance at Cambridge is not actually documented. The Duke
Speaker 1: seems to have taken an interest in Sancho, giving him
Speaker 1: books and encouraging him in his studies. The Duke died
Speaker 1: in seventeen forty nine, and it seems that sometime after
Speaker 1: that the three sisters that we mentioned earlier threatened to
Speaker 1: send Sancho to the Caribbean. Sancho went to Montague's widow,
Speaker 1: lady Mary, Duchess of Montague for help and Jackal's words.
Speaker 1: When she refused, he quote procured an old pistol for purposes,
Speaker 1: which his father's example had suggested as familiar and had
Speaker 1: sanctified as hereditary. In this frame of mind, the futility
Speaker 1: of remonstrance was obvious at that point. The Duchess hired
Speaker 1: Sancho as a butler, and he worked with her until
Speaker 1: her death in seventeen fifty one. In her will, she
Speaker 1: bequeathed him seventy pounds, along with an annuity of thirty
Speaker 1: pounds per year. Sancho used this money to try to
Speaker 1: make his own way in London. He may have tried
Speaker 1: a career on the stage, appearing in Shakespeare's Othello and
Speaker 1: Afribans Orinoco, but according to Jekyl quote, a defective and
Speaker 1: incorrigible articulation rendered it abortive, which was a roundabout way
Speaker 1: of saying he didn't work out with that because he
Speaker 1: had a speech disorder. Sancho's tastes outstripped his income in London, though.
Speaker 1: This is where Jekyl describes his behavior as quote a
Speaker 1: disposition of African texture. But really none of this seems
Speaker 1: particularly unusual for a twenty two year old living as
Speaker 1: a freeman with some money of his own. For the
Speaker 1: first time, he enjoyed himself with cards and theater and women,
Speaker 1: before realizing that he could not support that kind of
Speaker 1: lifestyle on his annuity. He once again turned to the
Speaker 1: House of Montague, this time George, Duke of Montague and
Speaker 1: Earl of Cardigan, whose wife Mary was the daughter of
Speaker 1: the late John and Mary Montague. The details here are
Speaker 1: a little bit sketchy, but he was most likely employed
Speaker 1: as George's valet. On December seventeenth, seventeen fifty eight, Ignatious
Speaker 1: Sancho married An Osborne, described as a black woman from
Speaker 1: the West Indies. They had at least six children together,
Speaker 1: William known as Billy, Kitty, Fanny, Lydia, Mary, and Elizabeth
Speaker 1: known as Eliza. We don't know much at all about Anne,
Speaker 1: but we do know from Sancho's letters that she was literate,
Speaker 1: that she had a brother named John, and that their
Speaker 1: two families were close. It's also clear from Sancho's letters
Speaker 1: that he truly dearly loved his wife and children. Sancho
Speaker 1: continued to work as part of the Montague household staff
Speaker 1: after he got married. In seventeen sixty eight, he had
Speaker 1: his portrait painted by Thomas Gainsborough, who was one of
Speaker 1: Britain's most fashionable and renowned artists in the eighteenth century.
Speaker 1: This happened in Bath when Gainsboro came to do a
Speaker 1: portrait of Lady Elizabeth Montague, who was George and Mary's daughter.
Speaker 1: Even though Sancho was working as household staff at this point,
Speaker 1: he is not wearing livery in the portrait, and he's
Speaker 1: using the hand than the waistcoat pose that was common
Speaker 1: in portraits of the upper class in the eighteenth and
Speaker 1: nineteen centuries. Today, that portrait is in the collection of
Speaker 1: the National Gallery of Canada. By the time he was
Speaker 1: in his forties, Sancho's health made it difficult for him
Speaker 1: to continue working in domestic service. He had asthma and gout,
Speaker 1: and the gout in particular became increasingly painful and debilitating,
Speaker 1: so in seventeen seventy three the family gave him a
Speaker 1: small annuity to help him start a grocery store, which
Speaker 1: he ran and managed with the help of his wife,
Speaker 1: and another example of how eighteenth century England was deeply
Speaker 1: connected to slavery. The most important products in his stock
Speaker 1: were tobacco, sugar and tea, all of which were being
Speaker 1: grown through the use of enslaved labor. The grocery was
Speaker 1: at number twenty Charles Street in Westminster, and while the
Speaker 1: building itself is now the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the
Speaker 1: shop's former location is marked with a historical plaque today.
Speaker 1: In addition to selling goods, Sancho also made it into
Speaker 1: something of a literary salon, hosting discussions among prominent writers
Speaker 1: and musicians. Regular visitors may have included formerly enslaved abolitionists
Speaker 1: Autoba Cuguano and O Lauda Equiano. Known visitors included aspiring
Speaker 1: writer George Cumberland, politician Charles James Fox, antiquary Richard Payne Night,
Speaker 1: and artist John Hamilton's Mortimer. As we noted earlier, the
Speaker 1: grocery also became something of a tourist attraction, with wealthy people,
Speaker 1: making it a point to shop there because of its proprietor,
Speaker 1: known as the remarkable Negro. In other words, Sancho had
Speaker 1: assimilated into middle class British society to the point that
Speaker 1: he was able to have his own shop, in his
Speaker 1: own home and all these connections, but he was still
Speaker 1: definitely an outsider within that society. Joseph Jekyl describes the
Speaker 1: grocery this way quote A commerce with the muses was
Speaker 1: supported amid the trivial and momentary interruptions of a shop.
Speaker 1: The poets were studied and even imitated, with some success.
Speaker 1: Two pieces were constructed for the stage. The theory of
Speaker 1: music was discussed, published and dedicated to the Princess Royal,
Speaker 1: and painting was so much within the circle of ignatious
Speaker 1: Sancho's judgment and criticism that Mortimer came often to consult him.
Speaker 1: Such was the man whose species philosophers and anatomis have
Speaker 1: endeavored to degrade as a deterioration of the human And
Speaker 1: such was the man whom fuller, with a benevolence and
Speaker 1: quaintness of phrase, peculiarly his own accountess God's image, though
Speaker 1: cut in ebony, since he owned the grocery store in
Speaker 1: his home. Sancho was eligible to vote in the British elections,
Speaker 1: which at the time were open only to male property holders.
Speaker 1: That was, of course, a tiny, tiny fraction of the
Speaker 1: British population. Sancho voted in seventeen seventy four, making him
Speaker 1: the first black Britain known to do so, and he
Speaker 1: voted again in seventeen eighty. Also in seventeen eighty he
Speaker 1: witnessed the anti Catholic Gordon Riots, something that he wrote
Speaker 1: about in his letters toward the end of his life.
Speaker 1: These letters were really the primary way that Sancho kept
Speaker 1: up with his enormous social circle. The a client in
Speaker 1: his health had made it difficult, too impossible for him
Speaker 1: to go visit people. In addition to his general correspondence,
Speaker 1: he also wrote letters to newspapers and to public figures,
Speaker 1: many of them advocating for the abolition of slavery. His
Speaker 1: last letters to friends and family make frequent mentions of
Speaker 1: illness and pain, and visits from doctors. Ignatia Santo died
Speaker 1: on December fourteen, seventy He was buried at St Margaret's,
Speaker 1: Westminster on December sevent In addition to his other firsts.
Speaker 1: He was the first person of African descent to have
Speaker 1: an obituary published in the British newspapers. Although Joseph Jekyl's
Speaker 1: biography is the source of a lot of the information
Speaker 1: that we've mentioned so far, we get a better sense
Speaker 1: of Ignatia Sancho's own thoughts and personality through his letters,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk more about that after we first have
Speaker 1: a sponsor break. After Ignatia Sancho died, his son William
Speaker 1: took over the Growth Street before eventually becoming a librarian
Speaker 1: for naturalist Joseph Banks and also opening a bookshop that
Speaker 1: made William Sancho England's first known black bookseller, and since
Speaker 1: he published some of his father's work as well as
Speaker 1: an edition of Voltaire, he was also England's first known
Speaker 1: black publisher. William Sancho also worked with Francis Crewe, who
Speaker 1: had been one of ignatius correspondents, on publishing a collection
Speaker 1: of his father's selected letters after his father's death. In
Speaker 1: cruse words, she was motivated by quote the desire of
Speaker 1: showing that an untutored African may possess abilities equal to
Speaker 1: a European and the still superior motive of wishing to
Speaker 1: serve his worthy family. Sancho had actually become publicly known
Speaker 1: for his letter writing while he was still living, thanks
Speaker 1: to an exchange of letters with author Lawrence Stern. A
Speaker 1: seventeen sixties six letter that Sancho wrote to Stern and
Speaker 1: then three letters that Stern wrote back to Sancho were
Speaker 1: included in the Letters of the Late Reverend Lawrence Stern
Speaker 1: to His Most Intimate Friends that was first published in
Speaker 1: seventy Sancho wrote this letter after reading Stern's job's account
Speaker 1: of the Shortness and Troubles of Life, which included a
Speaker 1: passage about slavery being a bitter draft. Sancho's letter to
Speaker 1: Stern was a little like a fan letter, but it
Speaker 1: was also a request for Stern to take up the
Speaker 1: issue of slavery more powerfully in his own writing. We
Speaker 1: read a bit of this letter earlier in the episode.
Speaker 1: Beyond what we already read, Sancho went on to talk
Speaker 1: about how much he appreciated the character of Uncle Toby
Speaker 1: interest from Shandy, before saying, quote, consider how great a
Speaker 1: part of our species, in all ages down to this,
Speaker 1: have been trod under the feet of cruel and capricious
Speaker 1: tyrants who would neither hear their cries nor pity their distresses.
Speaker 1: Consider slavery what it is, how bitter a draft, and
Speaker 1: how many millions are made to drink of it. From there,
Speaker 1: Sancho went on to say that none of his favorite
Speaker 1: authors had ever quote drawn a tear in favor of
Speaker 1: my miserable black brethren, the only exceptions being Stern and
Speaker 1: the author of Sir George Ellison. That's the History of
Speaker 1: Sir George Ellison, which was published in seventeen sixty six
Speaker 1: by Sarah Scott. Then Sancho went on to say, quote,
Speaker 1: I think you will forgive me. I am sure you
Speaker 1: will applaud me for beseeching you to give one half
Speaker 1: hour's attention to slavery as it is at this day
Speaker 1: practiced in our West Indies. That subject, handled in your
Speaker 1: striking manner, would ease the yoke perhaps of many. But
Speaker 1: if only one, gracious God, what a feast to a
Speaker 1: benevolent heart. Stern, to reply to this, began quote, there's
Speaker 1: a strange coincidence, Sancho, in the little events as well
Speaker 1: as in the great ones of this world. For I
Speaker 1: had been writing a tender tale of the sorrows of
Speaker 1: a friendless, poor negro girl. And my eyes had scarce
Speaker 1: done smarting with it when your letter of recommendation, in
Speaker 1: behalf of so many of her brethren and sisters came
Speaker 1: to me. But why her brethren or yours, Sancho, anymore
Speaker 1: than mine. Stern's reply went on to say, in part quote,
Speaker 1: but tis no uncommon thing, my good Sancho, for one
Speaker 1: half of the world to use the other half of
Speaker 1: it like brutes, and then endeavor to make them so.
Speaker 1: For my part, I never look westward when I am
Speaker 1: in a pensive mood at least, but I think of
Speaker 1: the burthens, which are brothers and sisters? Are they're carrying?
Speaker 1: Sterns letter to Sancho was circulated in abolitionist literature after
Speaker 1: it was published, and the same was true of Sancho's
Speaker 1: own letters. Sancho also seemed to pattern his own writing
Speaker 1: style after Sterns and Tristram Shandy, using lots and lots
Speaker 1: of dashes and something of a wandering style. There's been
Speaker 1: some debate among literary critics about whether this was a
Speaker 1: sort of super fans fawning mimicry of their favorite author
Speaker 1: style or not Sancho was definitely a huge fan of Stern,
Speaker 1: even owning a cast of a statue representing Stern's head,
Speaker 1: but it could also just be Sancho's own genuine voice
Speaker 1: and possibly a written an approximation of how he actually spoke.
Speaker 1: These letters that Santa wrote are candid, rye ironic, sometimes
Speaker 1: a little suggestive, and often self deprecating. Here's an example
Speaker 1: from a seventeen seventy seven letter to artist and printmaker
Speaker 1: John B. Hugh, who was a clerk on the Board
Speaker 1: of Control. Sancho writes about having been ill and about
Speaker 1: how the gout in his hand was making even writing painful,
Speaker 1: and then an ink blot fell on the page. He wrote,
Speaker 1: I hope confound the ink. What a blot? Now? Don't
Speaker 1: you dare suppose I was in fault? No, sir, the
Speaker 1: pen was diabbled, the paper worse. There was a concatenation
Speaker 1: of ill sorted chances all coincided to contribute to that
Speaker 1: fatal blot, which is so disarranged my ideas that I
Speaker 1: must perforce finish before I had half disburthened my head
Speaker 1: and heart. In some printed editions of Sancho's letters, the
Speaker 1: ink blot in question is is reproduced the page like
Speaker 1: with a smudgy little some sort of like typeface that
Speaker 1: they created to be like. This is the ink block
Speaker 1: character that we will use to print this love it.
Speaker 1: The letters also give glimpses into what it was like
Speaker 1: to be a black man living in London. A seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy seven letter describes a night out in Voxhall courtesy
Speaker 1: of a monsieur l quote. If you should happen to
Speaker 1: know him, you may tell him from me that last
Speaker 1: night three great girls, a boy and a fat old
Speaker 1: fellow were as happy and pleased as a fine evening,
Speaker 1: fine place, good songs, much company, and good music could
Speaker 1: make them heaven and earth. How happy, how delighted were
Speaker 1: the girls? Oh, the pleasures of novelty to youth. We
Speaker 1: went by water, had a coach home, were gazed at, followed, etcetera, etcetera,
Speaker 1: but not much abused. Sancho's criticisms of slavery include a
Speaker 1: reference to past podcast subject Phyllis Wheatley, specifically to the
Speaker 1: fact that John and Susannah Wheatley continued to enslave her
Speaker 1: while also helping to publish her work. Quote it reflects
Speaker 1: nothing either to the glory or generosity of her master,
Speaker 1: if she is still his slave, except he glories in
Speaker 1: the low vanity of having in his wanton power a
Speaker 1: mind animated by Heaven, a genius superior to himself. This
Speaker 1: letter was written in seventeen seventy eight, at which point
Speaker 1: Phillis Wheatley had been manumented. In the seventeen seventy eight
Speaker 1: letter to Jack wind Grave, Sancho responds to earlier letters
Speaker 1: in which wind Grave had described Africans as deceitful. Sancho writes, quote,
Speaker 1: my good friend, you should remember from whom they learned
Speaker 1: those vices. Before going on to condemn the institution of
Speaker 1: slavery and England's participation in it, Sancho acknowledges that he
Speaker 1: himself has enjoyed what he called many blessings living in England,
Speaker 1: before describing the nation's conduct as uniformly wicked in the
Speaker 1: Indies and in Guinea. He then goes on to say, quote,
Speaker 1: in Africa, the poor, wretched natives, blessed with the most
Speaker 1: fertile and luxuriant soil, are rendered so much the more
Speaker 1: miserable for what providence meant as a blessing. The Christians,
Speaker 1: abominable traffic for slaves, and the horrid cruelty and treachery
Speaker 1: of the petty kings, encouraged by their Christian customers who
Speaker 1: carry them strong liquors to inflame their national madness, and
Speaker 1: powder and bad firearms to furnish them with the hellish
Speaker 1: means of killing and kidnapping. Beyond these selections, Sancho's letters
Speaker 1: ranged all over in terms of their content. There's gossip,
Speaker 1: ordinary goings on what was happening with Sancho and his family,
Speaker 1: and observations of what was happening around him. He wrote
Speaker 1: to other black men who were embarking on their free
Speaker 1: adult lives with advice and guidance. Some of his letters
Speaker 1: also include requests for help, like soliciting donations to help
Speaker 1: black Londoners in need and the words of European Magazine
Speaker 1: in two. Through his letters, Sancho quote presents to us
Speaker 1: the naked effusions of a negro's heart, and it shows
Speaker 1: it glowing with the finest philanthropy and the purist affections.
Speaker 1: They have more warmth and elegance of diction and more
Speaker 1: feeling than correctness. As we've talked about before, publishing books
Speaker 1: at this point involved getting subscribers to buy the book
Speaker 1: in advance. The first edition of Sancho's Letters, which came
Speaker 1: out in seventeen eighty two, had one thousand, one eighty
Speaker 1: one subscribers, and subscribers were all over the social and
Speaker 1: economic spectrum, including servants, artists, and politicians, and including the
Speaker 1: Prime Minister. Sancho's Letters became an immediate bestseller, with five
Speaker 1: editions published between seventeen eighty two and eighteen o three.
Speaker 1: Sancho's Letters have come and gone out of favor since
Speaker 1: they were first published, in a pattern that's really similar
Speaker 1: to past podcast subject Phillis Sweetly. Although both writers work
Speaker 1: was used to support abolition, it was also cited by
Speaker 1: people like Thomas Jefferson in Notes on the State of Virginia.
Speaker 1: Jefferson wrote, quote, religion indeed has produced to Phillis s Wheetly,
Speaker 1: but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published
Speaker 1: under her name are below the dignity of criticism. The
Speaker 1: heroes of Densidad are to her as hercules to the
Speaker 1: author of that poem. Ignacious Sancho has approached nearer to
Speaker 1: merit in composition. Yet his letters do more honor to
Speaker 1: the hearts than the head. Sancho's work went out of
Speaker 1: print in the nineteenth century, and when it was reprinted
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, some critics dismissed it as inauthentic
Speaker 1: and too deferential to white British society, some of the
Speaker 1: same criticisms that had been applied to Wheatley's poetry in
Speaker 1: the twentieth century. But as was the case with Phyllis Wheatley,
Speaker 1: in more recent years, critics have given Sancho more credit
Speaker 1: for his ability to carve out a space for himself
Speaker 1: in British society and to persistently press his correspondence on
Speaker 1: issues like racism. In addition to his letters, Sancho was
Speaker 1: the first black Man to publish music and the European
Speaker 1: musical tradition. Four collections of his music survived today. Minuets,
Speaker 1: Cotillions and Country Dances for the Island Mandolin, German Flute
Speaker 1: and Harpsichord Composed by an African, which came out in
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty seven. A collection of New Songs Composed by
Speaker 1: an African, humbly inscribed to the Honorable Mrs James Brudenell
Speaker 1: by her most humble and Obedient Servant, which came out
Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty nine. Minuets Etcetera, Etcetera for the Violin, Mandolin,
Speaker 1: German Flute and Harpsichord Books, Second Composed by an African
Speaker 1: which came out in seventeen seventy and twelve Country Dances
Speaker 1: for the Year seventeen seventy nine, sept for the Harpsichord
Speaker 1: By Permission Humbly dedicated to the Right Honorable Miss North
Speaker 1: by her most obedient Servant, Ignacious Sancho. All of these
Speaker 1: works were published for the author, meaning that Sancho paid
Speaker 1: for the printing himself, which was typical for amateur composers
Speaker 1: and for professionals who were just starting out. This musical
Speaker 1: work has been described as reflective of a knowledgeable, capable amateur,
Speaker 1: a selection of charming songs that were easy for other
Speaker 1: amateurs to sing and play at home. It's possible that
Speaker 1: Sancho performed the music he wrote either at home or
Speaker 1: at gatherings within London's black community as well. Menu scripts
Speaker 1: of these works still exist and are in the collections
Speaker 1: of the British Museum in the Library of Congress. A
Speaker 1: theory of music that Sancho wrote unfortunately has been lost.
Speaker 1: There are though videos of various ensembles performing selections of
Speaker 1: this music that you can find online. Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: google something like Ignacious Sancho music, you'll find videos of
Speaker 1: performances and things like that. Ignacious Sancho has also been
Speaker 1: the subject of a one man play by Paterson Joseph, who,
Speaker 1: in addition to his other work, played Connor Mason on
Speaker 1: the TV show Timeless, which I was a huge fan
Speaker 1: of and I know many of our listeners were also.
Speaker 1: This one man show is called Sancho an Active Remembrance,
Speaker 1: and in a piece called Preface to Sancho an Active
Speaker 1: Remembrance that was published on the website of the British Library,
Speaker 1: Joseph writes about how many Black Britons trace their identities
Speaker 1: back to the wind Rush gen ration that was a
Speaker 1: wave of immigration to Britain from the Caribbeans starting with
Speaker 1: arrivals aboard the h MT Empire wind Rush which arrived
Speaker 1: on June. That, of course, is a whole other story,
Speaker 1: which could be its own episode of the podcast. He
Speaker 1: writes about how his research into Ignatius Sancho and the
Speaker 1: time that he was living in quote changed forever the
Speaker 1: meaning of the words black British. That piece is well
Speaker 1: worth a read. It's easily found by googling preface to
Speaker 1: Sancho an active remembrance um, and that is ignisious. Sancho.
Speaker 1: Do you have a bit of listener mail for us?
Speaker 1: I do, before I get to that. There are, of
Speaker 1: course lots of places to read all of those letters
Speaker 1: yourself online. Um. The whole thing, it's in the public domain.
Speaker 1: I have a super super quick Facebook comment from Lynn
Speaker 1: that is in reference to our podcast on James Baldwin,
Speaker 1: and Lynn writes, just want to let you know that
Speaker 1: in reference to the James Baldwin podcast, City College of
Speaker 1: New York was tuition free until the early nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: so Baldwin didn't attend for other reasons. Um. We got
Speaker 1: a couple of notes about that. One of the biographies
Speaker 1: of of James Baldwin that I read for the episode
Speaker 1: characterized his not attending City College of New York as
Speaker 1: being about not being able to afford the tuition. And
Speaker 1: in my head, I was like, I thought City College
Speaker 1: of New York was free, And in my googling of that,
Speaker 1: the first thing I saw was a h An article
Speaker 1: that was about a tuition free um program for like
Speaker 1: one particular set of like economically relatively disadvantaged students that
Speaker 1: New York was rolling out, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that must have been what I was thinking of, and
Speaker 1: just moved on in my head. Um, but that is correct.
Speaker 1: It was not charging tuition as of the forties that
Speaker 1: had been established as a tuition free learning institution and
Speaker 1: continued to be so until various economic factors and whatnot
Speaker 1: caused it to start charging tuition. Um. It probably still
Speaker 1: was for financial reasons that he didn't go though, Like
Speaker 1: his family was really really impoverished, and by working instead
Speaker 1: of going to college it meant that he was able
Speaker 1: to help them make ends meet. So I think even
Speaker 1: though there wasn't tuition involved, that was still the root
Speaker 1: of that matter. So thank you for that correction. I
Speaker 1: apologize for not going deeply enough in fact checking myself. UM.
Speaker 1: And if you would like to write to us about
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