Another Black History blog

Anyway - since this is Black History Month I thought I would start a nice little blog on Black British History.

And I'm basing it on stories you come across in The Times.  The Times newspaper has been around since the 18th century, and looking through old copies you quite often find passing references to people of African, or Afro-British descent.

But let me be clear: I don't mean to write about any Major Historical Figures here, not the big beasts - not your Olaudah Equianos or Dido Elizabeth Belles, the ones who get films made about them.  No. This blog is all about trying to shine a wobbly light on the small fry, on some of the thousands of ordinary black people who were living in Britain in Regency times. Ordinary people.

But I shouldn't even describe the people in this blog as 'ordinary' perhaps, because frankly you only get into the papers for being slightly out of the ordinary - either your house burnt down, or you robbed someone, or you were mangled in a frightful coaching accident. Because I'm sure most black people in Britain then, like most white people in Britain then, kept their heads down and noses clean and avoided being in the papers.  But these few either didn't, or couldn't.

Okay then. This blog is about quite ordinary black Brits, who briefly ceased to be ordinary because of some newsworthy accident that happened to them.  It is respectfully dedicated to the everday Brits who always fall through the cracks of Big History, the pretty-average black people of Georgian and Regency times, whose descendants are no doubt still living and working among us today.

So for my first subject we turn to a business advert of 1790. It's asking for the creditors of "the late John Constant, a black man" to step up.  Here's the ad.  It appeared on Page 1 of The Times, 26 October 1790.

So lets see what we can find about John Constant, beyond the stuff already implied in the advert - that he was the 'late' John Constant, and that he had been a sailor aboard a kind of ship called an 'East Indiaman' under its captain, Henry Smedley.  That he owed some debts: and that he evidently had the money to pay for them, as creditors are being invited to contact Mr. John Davis of Leadenhall Street. Let's google his background a little...

I can't find a picture of John's actual ship, the Raymond, so this is one of another 'East Indiaman'.  Belonging to the East India Company, these ships sailed between the fabulous markets of India and China, transporting luxury goods back to a Britain that couldn't get enough of them.  The Raymond took several months to complete her voyage, and would be in danger most of the way.  It wasn't just pirates or enemy navies you had to worry about either - it was storms and tempests, uncharted reefs, and of course you were travelling to foreign coasts where your body would encounter new diseases.

An East Indiaman always carried a valuable cargo, so naturally she was a plum prize for any pirate or privateer which could take her.  East Indiamen were merchant ships but always had a defensive capacity, be it guns or sometimes a detachment of troops travelling to protect her.  (Spoiler: a few years after John Constant died, his ship the Raymond was in fact captured by a French frigate.)

So John was a cook, but he wasn't the ship's cook - he cooked for the captain and not the crew.  He may even have been in the nature of a personal servant.  But he was travelling to the Far East, something very few British people of the day had chance to do.  He might have been well-placed to do a little trading on his own account.  Was that why he had creditors?

Here's a link to a blog with a lot more detail about the Honourable East India Company and the perils of sailing aboard its ships: Battles at sea