Black England: : A Forgotten Georgian History (Hardback)

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‘In the 1990s, an assistant in a London bookshop informed the African American historian Gretchen Gerzina that there “were no black people in England before 1945”. Gerzina effectively disproved that assertion by going on to write the classic book on black people in Georgian London, Black England.’ – David Olusoga, The Guardian

Originally published in the 1995 and now available in a fresh edition with a foreword by Zadie Smith, Gerzina’s engrossing classic brings to life Georgian Black Britain with vivid detail, highlighting fascinating individuals from Ignatius Sancho to Olaudah Equiano within the broader story of the struggle against enslavement.

Georgian England had a large and distinctive Black community.

There were special churches, Black-only balls, many became famous and respected. But all, whether prosperous citizens or newly freed slaves, lived under the constant threat of kidnap and sale to plantations.

Black England tells their stories, bringing their triumphs and tortures to vivid life, revealing a dramatic forgotten chapter of our shared past.