Chains reaction
An African slave called Ignatius won over 18th century England, writes John Vincent.
Enduring, as we are, times of extreme vitriol against anyone or anything that reminds us of Britain’s colonial past, it was with particular interest that I noted, under the heading Slavery in a Bonhams books catalogue, the entry: Letters of the late Ignatius Sancho, an African.
If ever a book or its author merits the term unique, this is it: first book to have been written and published by a black person; earliest published account of African slavery written in English from a first-hand experience; first person of African descent to vote in a British general election; and first African to be afforded an obituary in the British press.
Now, more than 240 years after his death, a copy of that historically important book, bearing on the front cover Sancho’s engraved portrait by Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815) after Thomas Gainsborough, has surfaced at auction. The 1803 edition, showing signs of repair, age-related staining and foxing, realised £955 at Bonhams.
The book proved an immediate success when first published in 1782, two years after Sancho’s death aged about 51. More than 2,000 readers subscribed to Letters... which provided to a wide audience firsthand insight on slavery and empire as well as his own vexed experiences as a highly educated person of African origin living in London at that time. It reveals, too, his vast social circle of aristocrats, prominent politicians, country squires, artists and businessmen as well as servants.
A brief look at the extraordinary life of Sancho... slave, butler, shopkeeper, man of letters, composer, social reformer and abolitionist. Reputedly born on a slave ship from Guinea bound for the Spanish West Indies, his mother died when he was an infant and his father committed suicide rather than face enslavement. Aged two, he was taken to London and spent his childhood as a slave to three sisters at a house in Greenwich.
Sancho was later befriended and lent books by the 2nd Duke of Montagu. After his death in 1749, Sancho fled Greenwich and was taken in by the duke’s widow, serving as butler until her death in 1751. In 1758 Sancho married West Indian Anne Osborne, with whom he had seven children, and they opened a grocery store in Westminster.
Sancho, by now famous as “the extraordinary negro”, maintained an active social and literary life and had his portrait painted by Gainsborough in 1768. As a financially independent male householder, Sancho was able to vote in the 1774 general election, won by Lord North, and again just before his death in 1780.
An avid reader, self-educated Sancho wrote letters to newspaper editors calling for an end to the slave trade, appeared on stage, penned a dramatic first-hand account of the Gordon Riots and was a productive composer of music, publishing four collections and a treatise entitled A Theory of Music.
■ At the same Bonhams sale, Ian Fleming’s presentation copy of From Russia With Love to secretary Una Trueblood – his real-life Miss Moneypenny – realised £25,250.
His mother died when he was an infant and his father committed suicide rather than face slavery.