Black Victorians
Keshia N. Abraham, John Woolf
Category: History,
Beyond the patrician vision of Victorian Britain traditionally advanced in our textbooks, there always existed another, more diverse Britain, populated by people of colour marking achievements both ordinary and extraordinary.
In this deeply researched and dynamic history, Woolf and Abraham reach into the archives to recentre our attention on marginalised Black Victorians, from leading medic George Rice to political agitator William Cuffay to abolitionists Henry โBoxโ Brown and Sarah Parker Remond; from pre-Raphaelite muse Fanny Eaton to renowned composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. While acknowledging the paradoxes of Victorian views of race, Black Victorians demonstrates, with storytelling verve and a liberatory impulse, how Black people were visible and influential, firmly rooted in British life.
Reviews
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โThe history of Black people in this country is woven into the tapestry that is the United Kingdom. Black Victorians shows us, in vivid detail, how Black people didn't just take part in the Victorian era, they shaped itโย David Lammy MP, author of Tribes
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โMeatily researched and illuminating... [brings] to swaggering life a group of Britons who have spent too long in the shadowsโย Susie Goldsbrough, The Times
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โAn important survey of the subject based on painstaking research. Woolf and Abraham's Black Victorians: Hidden in History provides an indispensable introduction to the subject told through the lives of some of the most eminent personalities of the era, as well as those hitherto little known. A significant contribution to the fieldโย Hakim Adi
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'This book will generate discussion and change mindsets. It is brilliantโย Dr Maggie Semple OBE
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โThe book's telling details are liberating for, in spite of the Black Victorians' subjection and degradation, they are presented not as victims, but rather as resourceful, inventive, assertive human beings in their quests for betterment. Their cumulative experiences are skilfully woven into an engaging, richly textured book โ an insightful work of scholarshipโย Ron Ramdin, author of The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain
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โFascinating, thorough, well-researched and extremely readable, Black Victorians provides invaluable insight into a history of Victorian Britain that is not often toldโย Hafsa Zayyan, author of We Are All Birds of Uganda
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โEngaging, informative and accessible, Black Victorians shines a light on a little-known aspect of British history. It is written with passion and attention to detail. I highly recommend this bookโย Stephen Bourne, author of Black Poppies: Britain's Black Community and the Great War
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โRevelatory. Exposing whitewashing, tackling archival obfuscation, and returning little known figures to history, this book restores colour to our vision of Victorian Britainโย Suzannah Lipscomb, author of What is History, Now?
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'An important contributionย to the history of Africans in Britainโฆ Abraham and Woolf are truly to be applaudedโย Onyeka Nubia, author and Assistant Professor of History, Nottingham University
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'Read this book and learn; itโs time to rewrite the narrative and redress the balance of the Black British presence in our historiesโฆ Extremely powerfulโย Duwaine Brown and Pauline Foster, Islington Black History Working Group
