History of African presence in London
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The history of African presence in London extends back to the Roman period. Africans starting arriving in significant numbers during the Tudor and
Stuart period The Stuart period of British history lasted from 1603 to 1714 during the dynasty of the House of Stuart. The period ended with the death of Queen Anne and the accession of King George I from the German House of Hanover. The period was plagu ...
s.


Roman London

Using bioarchaeology, DNA analysis and the examination of
grave goods Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a ...
in
Roman London Londinium, also known as Roman London, was the capital of Roman Britain during most of the period of Roman rule. It was originally a settlement established on the current site of the City of London around AD 47–50. It sat at a key cross ...
have identified one woman from the southern Mediterranean who may have had African ancestry who had travelled to London during the Roman period.


16th century

The population density of Africans in 16th-century London is poorly understood. Due to the proliferation of documentation in the Tudor and Stuart periods, we know that Africans were present in most of the noble courts of this century. For example, Catherine of Aragon's most trusted Lady-in-waiting Catalina des Cardones was Ethiopian and in a
Morganatic marriage Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...
with an African bow-maker named Oviedo. African trumpeters served
King Henry VII Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufo ...
and King Henry VIII. John Blanke, the only African trumpeter whose name we have, and who is depicted on Westminster tournament roll in 1511, is said to have arrived in England with Catherine of Aragon in 1501, although a document from June 1488, lists a person named John Blank, a footman already in service of Henry VII. Documentation from the court of
Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...
concerning the Baskerville campaign of 1595–96, documents a substantial number of Spanish and African prisoners of war captured in an assault by
Sir Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 ( ...
on a Spanish pearl-fishing settlement in Rio de la Hacha in the
Spanish West Indies The Spanish West Indies or the Spanish Antilles (also known as "Las Antillas Occidentales" or simply "Las Antillas Españolas" in Spanish) were Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. In terms of governance of the Spanish Empire, The Indies was the d ...
during the Anglo-Spanish War. Later, she traded those prisoners for the return of English prisoners held in Spain and Portugal. Elizabeth also employed an African court dancer named Lucy Negro who later became an infamous madam who ran a licentious house (brothel) in Clerkenwell, north-east London and is considered one of the candidates to have been the inspiration for the Dark Lady of
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's sonnets. Aside from presence within the courts, parish documentation also establishes that African people were embedded in all echelons of London society,
Reasonable Blackman Reasonable Blackman ( 1579–1592) (also possibly known as John Reason and Reasonable Blackmore) was a silk weaver resident in Southwark, London, in the late sixteenth century. He was among the earliest people of African heritage to be living and ...
a silk weaver who likely emigrated from the Netherlands, lived in Southwark around 1579–1592. Mary Fillis, a daughter of a basket weaver from Morocco, came to London around 1583–84 and ended up a seamstress from East Smithfield. Prince Dederi Jaquoah, the son of King Caddi-biah who ruled of a kingdom in modern Liberia was baptised in London on New Year's Day 1611 and lived as a merchant.


17th–18th centuries

By the middle of the eighteenth century, African people comprised somewhere between one and three percent of the London populace British merchants became involved with the
transatlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
between Europe, Africa and the Americas. Many of those involved in British colonial activities, such as ship's captains, colonial officials, merchants, slave traders and plantation owners brought enslaved Africans as servants back to Britain with them. This marked the growing black presence in the northern, eastern and southern areas of London. There were also small numbers of
freed slaves A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...
and seamen from West Africa and
South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...
. Many of these emigrants were forced into beggary due to the lack of jobs and their low social status. In 1610, Prince Dederi Jaquoah was brought, aged 20, to the City of London from West Africa by an English merchant, and records state that he was “sent out of his cuntrye by his father ... to be baptised” and that he stayed in London for two years. In 1684, Katharine Auker was brought to England from Barbados by her enslaver, plantation owner Robert Rich. After Auker was baptised in 1688 at St Katharine by the Tower, she was made destitute by her enslaver. In 1690 she succeeded in a court petition to be discharged from his enslavement. An official record of this is held in The National Archives. In 1737, black Briton George Scipio was accused of stealing Anne Godfrey's washing, with the case resting entirely on whether or not Scipio was the only black man in Hackney at the time. Around the 1750s, London became the home of many African people,
Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
,
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
people,
Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...
, and
Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
. In 1764 ''
The Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term '' magazine'' (from the French ''magazine ...
'' reported that there was "supposed to be near 20,000 Negroe servants." Evidence of the number of black residents in London has been found through registered burials. Leading African
abolitionists Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...
of the period included
Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano (; c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa (), was a writer and abolitionist from, according to his memoir, the Eboe (Igbo) region of the Kingdom of Benin (today southern Nigeria). Enslaved a ...
,
Ignatius Sancho Charles Ignatius Sancho ( – 14 December 1780) was a British abolitionist, writer and composer. Born on a slave ship in the Atlantic, Sancho was sold into slavery in the Spanish colony of New Granada. After his parents died, Sancho's owner t ...
and Quobna Ottobah Cugoano. With the support of other Britons, these activists demanded that the slave trade and slavery be abolished. Supporters involved in this movement included workers and other emigrant nationals of the urban poor. At this time, slavery in Britain itself had no support from common law, but its definitive legal status was not clearly defined until the 19th century. Free African people could not be enslaved, but black people who were brought as enslaved people to Britain were considered the property of their enslavers. During this era
Lord Mansfield William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, PC, SL (2 March 170520 March 1793) was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland, before moving to Lond ...
declared that a slave who fled from his master could not be taken by force or sold abroad, in the case of
Somerset v Stewart ''Somerset v Stewart'' (177298 ER 499(also known as ''Somersett's case'', ''v. XX Sommersett v Steuart and the Mansfield Judgment)'' is a judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772, relating to the right of an enslaved person on E ...
. This verdict fuelled the numbers of African people that escaped slavery, and helped send slavery into decline. In this same period many enslaved soldiers who fought on the side of the British in the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
arrived in London. Many of them became poverty-stricken and were reduced to begging on the streets. The black people in London lived among the whites in areas of
Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...
,
Stepney Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...
,
Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...
, Isleworth and
St Giles Saint Giles (, la, Aegidius, french: Gilles), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 6th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly lege ...
. The majority of these people did not live as enslaved people, but as
domestic servant A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...
s to wealthy whites. Many became labeled as the "Black Poor" defined as former low-wage soldiers, seafarers and former plantation workers. During the late 18th century there were many publications and memoirs written about the "black poor". One example is the writings of Equiano, who became an unofficial spokesman for Britain's Black community. A memoir about his life is entitled, ''
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano ''The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African'', first published in 1789 in London,
''. Equiano became a landowner in Cambridgeshire and married Susannah Cullen, from
Soham Soham ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of East Cambridgeshire, in Cambridgeshire, England, just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket. Its population was 10,860 at the 2011 census. History Archaeology The region between De ...
. Both his daughters were born and baptised there. In 1787, 441 Black people emigrated from London for resettlement to the
colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...
of
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
with help from the
Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
. Today the descendants of the Black Poor form part of the
Sierra Leone Creole people The Sierra Leone Creole people ( kri, Krio people) are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Liberated African slaves who settled in the Western Area of ...
.


19th century

Coming into the early 19th century, more groups of black soldiers and seaman were
discharged Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...
after the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
and some settled in London. These emigrants suffered and faced many challenges as did many black people in London. The slave trade was abolished completely in the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
by 1833. The number of black people in London was steadily declining with these new laws. Fewer black people were brought into London from the West Indies and parts of Africa. During the mid-19th century there were restrictions on foreign immigration. In the later part of the 19th century there was a buildup of small groups of black dockside communities in towns such as Canning Town,
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, and
Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
. This was a direct effect of new shipping links that were established with the Caribbean and West Africa. Despite facing social prejudice, some 19th-century black people living in England achieved exceptional success.
Pablo Fanque Pablo Fanque (born William Darby; 30 March 1810 – 4 May 1871) was a British equestrian performer and circus proprietor, becoming the first recorded Black circus owner in Britain. His circus was popular in Victorian Britain for 30 years, a p ...
, born poor as William Darby in Norwich, rose to become the proprietor of one of Britain's most successful circuses during the Victorian era. He is immortalised in the lyrics of The Beatles song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" Another famous black Briton was William Davison, a conspirator executed for his role in the
Cato Street Conspiracy The Cato Street Conspiracy was a plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool in 1820. The name comes from the meeting place near Edgware Road in London. The police had an informer; the plotters fell in ...
against Lord Liverpool's government in 1820. Wales's first black High Sheriff was
Nathaniel Wells Nathaniel Wells (10 September 1779 – 13 May 1852) was a British land owner and magistrate of Afro-Caribbean descent. Born on a Saint Kitts plantation to a white father and black mother, Wells inherited his father's plantations. He was sent t ...
, the son of a slave from
St Kitts Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...
and a Welsh slave trader. After his father's death he was freed and inherited a fortune. He moved to Monmouthshire's
Piercefield House Piercefield House is a largely ruined neo-classical country house near St Arvans, Monmouthshire, Wales, about north of the centre of Chepstow. The central block of the house was designed in the very late 18th century, by, or to the designs of, ...
and became
Sheriff of Monmouthshire This is a list of Sheriffs of Monmouthshire, an office which was created in 1536 but not fully settled until 1540. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, the shrievalty of Monmouthshire was abolished, and replac ...
in 1818. One of the leaders in 19th-century chartism was William Cuffay, who was born on a merchant ship in the West Indies in 1788, and whose father, had been a slave in St Kitts.


20th century

One black Londoner,
Learie Constantine Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, (21 September 19011 July 1971) was a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black pee ...
, a
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
er from Trinidad and welfare officer in the
RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
, was refused service at the Imperial Hotel in London in July 1943. He stood up for his rights and later was awarded compensation. That particular example is used by some to illustrate the slow change towards acceptance and equality of all citizens in London.


Post-war period

In 1950, it was estimated there were no more than 20,000 non-White residents in the United Kingdom, mainly in England; almost all born overseas. Just after the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the first groups of post-war Caribbean immigrants started to emigrate and settle in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. There were an estimated 492 that were passengers on the that arrived at
Tilbury Docks The Port of Tilbury is a port on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London, as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for contai ...
on 22 June 1948. These passengers settled in the area of Brixton which is now a prominently Black district in Britain. From the 1950s into the 1960s, there was a mass migration of workers from all over the English-speaking Caribbean, particularly
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
; who settled in the UK. These immigrants were invited to fill labour requirements in London's hospitals, transportation venues and railway development. There was a continuous influx of African students, sportsmen, and businessmen mixed within British society. They are viewed as having been a major contributing factor to the rebuilding of the post-war urban London economy. In 1962, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act was passed in by the
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...
, along with a succession of other laws in
1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...
, 1971, and
1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...
that severely restricted the entry of Black Caribbean immigrants into the United Kingdom. In 1975, a new voice emerged for the Black population of London; his name was David Pitt and he brought a new voice to the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
. He spoke against racism and for equality in regards to all residents of Britain. At the 1987 general election, the first-ever Black British MPs were elected to the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
; Diane Abbott for
Hackney North and Stoke Newington Hackney North and Stoke Newington is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since 1987 by Diane Abbott of the Labour Party, who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 6 October 2016 to 5 April 2020. Abbott was o ...
,
Bernie Grant Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant (17 February 1944 – 8 April 2000) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Tottenham, London, from 1987 to his death in 2000. Biography Bernie Grant was born in Georgetown ...
for
Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...
and
Paul Boateng Paul Yaw Boateng, Baron Boateng (born 14 June 1951) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent South from 1987 to 2005, becoming the UK's first Black Cabinet Minister in May 2002, when he was appoi ...
for Brent South. All were candidates from the Labour Party, and out of these three people; Abbott was the first Black British woman to be elected to the House of Commons. By the end of the 20th century, the number of Black Londoners numbered half a million, according to the
1991 UK Census A nationwide census, commonly known as Census 1991, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday 21 April 1991. This was the 19th UK census. ''Census 1991'' was organised by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys in England and Wales, t ...
. An increasing number of these Black Londoners were London, or British-born. Even with this growing population and the first black peoples elected to the UK Parliament, many argue that there was still discrimination and a socio-economic imbalance in London among the Black community. In 1992, the number of Black members in Parliament increased to six and in
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
, they increased their numbers to nine. There are still many problems that Black Londoners face; the new global and high-tech information revolution is changing the urban economy and some argue that it is driving unemployment rates among Blacks up relative to non-Blacks, something which, it is argued, threatens to erode the progress made thus far. As of June 2007, the Black population of London was 802,300, equivalent to 10.6% of the population of London; 4.3% of Londoners are Caribbean, 5.5% of Londoners are African and a further 0.8% are from other black backgrounds including American and Latin American. There are also 117,400 people who are mixed black and white. At the 2011 UK Census, the total Black population of London stood at 1,088,640 or 13.3% of the population.


See also

*
Historical immigration to Great Britain The historical immigration to Great Britain concerns the movement of people, cultural and ethnic groups to the British Isles before Irish independence in 1922. Immigration after Irish independence is dealt with by the article Immigration to the ...
* Black British * Ethnic groups in London


References

{{Black British topics Black British culture in London Black British history History of immigration to the United Kingdom
African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...
Slavery in the United Kingdom Multiculturalism