The Absence of Blackness in History

by Demi Armstrong 

PREHISTORIC BRITAIN

Researchers from London’s natural history museum, analysed the DNA from the oldest whole skeleton in Britain, which is predicted to have been from the Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age. From their analysis, researchers found that the man most likely had dark hair, possibly curlier than average and skin that had a dark brown to black tone. 

This suggests that black people have been in Britain far longer than most researchers and archaeologists had originally thought. 

Science-environment-42939192

ROMAN BRITAIN

In 1901, a skeleton, known as the Ivory Bangle Lady was found in York in a stone coffin. The skeleton is thought to have been a high-status woman in Roman York, given her possessions that were found with her, including jet and elephant ivory bracelets, earrings, pendants, beads, a blue glass jug and a glass mirror. Archaeologists analysed her facial features, this pointed to the woman likely being of North African descent. The African presence in Roman Britain is likely to have been far more diverse than originally believed. 

https://www.history.co.uk/article/the-history-of-black-britain-roman-africans

https://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/collections/collections-highlights/ivory-bangle-lady/

MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

Ipswich Man 

The skeleton of a man, most probably originating in Africa, was found in the cemetery of Grey Friars monastery in Ipswich. Given that he was buried in Greyfriars monastery suggests that he was of some high status, the monastery itself was involved in the Crusade, which has led researchers to conclude that the Ipswich Man was most likely involved in the European Crusades in c. 1225-1285.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z8gpm39

TUDOR ENGLAND

Mary Fillis 

Mary Fillis was the daughter of a Moroccan shovel maker and worked as a servant to a merchant. By the age of 20 she worked for a seamstress and later became a dressmaker herself. She never married and remained independent, she eventually became a prominent and respectable Black woman in Tudor society.

VICTORIAN BRITAIN

Sarah Forbes Bonetta 

Sarah was born in West Africa before being captured and held in captivity. She was then gifted to a British Naval Captain and taken to England. Sarah was presented to Queen Victoria, who took an interest in her education. Sarah was very intelligent and spoke English well. She was sent to the Church Missionary Society school in Freetown, her frequent accomplishments were scrutinised by the press as her intellectual successes opposed racist beliefs of the intellectual inferiority of African people. After her education Sarah returned to England when the queen introduced her into high society. When she was 19, Sarah married a Sierra-leone merchant and given Sarah's status as the queen protegee the wedding itself was extravagant and the wedding party consisted of ‘white ladies with African gentlemen, and African ladies with white gentlemen’. Sarah and her husband then moved to Lagos and Sarah named her first daughter ‘Victoria’ after the queen who was her godmother. After Sarah’s death, the queen paid for Victoria to be educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/osborne/history-and-stories/sarah-forbes-bonetta/

https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/black-history-month-mary-fillis-black-tudors