Expanding upon the 2017 Radio 4 series 'Britain's Black Past', this
book presents those stories and analyses through the lens of a recovered past. Even
those who may be familiar with some of the materials will find much that they
had not previously known, and will be introduced to people, places, and stories
brought to light by new research. In a time of international racial unrest and
migration, it is important not to lose sight of similar situations that took
place in an earlier time. In chapters written by scholars, artists, and
independent researchers, readers will learn of an early musician, the sales of
slaves in Scotland, the grave-now a shrine-of a black enslaved boy left to die in
Morecombe Bay, of a country estate owned by a mixed-race slave owner, and of
the two strikingly different people who lived in a Bristol house that is now a
museum. Black sailors, political activists, memoirists, appear in these pages,
but the book also re-examines living history, in the form of modern plays,
television programmes, and genealogical sleuthing. Through them, Britain's
Black Past is not only presented anew, but shown to be very much alive in our
own time.
