Black England taught me more history than I ever learned at school. This book helped me to understand the history my generation are making now. To say that it is groundbreaking is stating the obvious. Black England is part of our canon. With books like this to guide us, we are unstoppable. Gretchen Gerzina tells it as it was, so we know how it is. Black England is a book that will be relevant for ever.

Benjamin Zephaniaher

Professor Gretchen Gerzina leads us through a different view of eighteenth-century England, through the lives and experiences of the black people who lived there. For those who believe that black people only arrived in Britain when the ship The Empire Windrush docked in 1948 with its Jamaican passengers, this talk will show a much longer history. From those who fought for Britain in the American Revolutionary War, to servants in houses and shops, published authors and even mixed race heirs and heiresses, you will learn about the often surprising lives of black people who called Britain home. Using images from the period, Gretchen Gerzina will recreate this fascinating but often difficult period, through a series of individual lives. There will be time after the presentation to answer questions.

What we’ll cover:

• A more complete understanding of the variety of people who lived in eighteenth-century Britain Insight into the ways that they were active in the abolitionist movement
• An understanding of the many ways they formed families and communities, often with white British people.
• A sense of the obstacles they faced in daily life Deeper understanding of the long history of Black Britain

Why is it important for people to learn this skill?

By looking into the past, we can gain a deeper understanding not only of British history, but of the ways that this history affects the present.

Who is this relevant for?

This talk is for anyone who would like to know more about Georgian Britain through a perhaps unfamiliar lens.

About your host:

Gretchen Gerzina is the author of Black England: A Forgotten Georgian History, as well as other books on Black British history. She has also published biographies of Dora Carrington of the Bloomsbury Group, and Frances Hodgson Burnett, the author of The Secret Garden.

Now the Paul Murray Kendall Professor of Biography and Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she has also been the Eastman Professor at the University of Oxford, Professor of English at Brunel University, and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Exeter.