Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an AfricanCosimo, Inc., 2005 M01 1 - 310 pages Born in 1729 on a slave ship bound for the West Indies, orphaned by the age of two and taken to England by his owner, Ignatius Sancho rose from servitude to become the most celebrated Afro-Briton of his time. Sancho's varied accomplishments include a number of Afro-British milestones, among them: first playwright; first art critic; first published correspondence; first direct attack on slavery; the only documented Afro-British voter during the eighteenth century; and the first Afro-Briton to be accorded an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography. His thoughts on race and politics - including his criticism of British imperialism in India, the complicity of Africans in the slave trade, and the blatant racism that flourished in his adopted homeland - will be of particular interest to twentieth-century readers. |
Common terms and phrases
attend believe blessed bring brother called Charles Street course dare DEAR MADAM dear Sir enjoy esteem expect eyes face fame father fear feel fortune friendly friendship gave girls give Grace grateful half hand happy head hear heart honest honor hope human humble servant IGNATIUS kind ladies leave LETTER live look Lord mean meet mind Miss morning nature negro never night noble obliged opinion past peace perhaps pleased pleasure poor pray present pretty reason received regard remember respects rest rich SANCHO Sancho joins serve short sincerely soon spirit sure sweet tell thank thee thing thou thought town true truly trust truth turn whole wish worthy write young
Popular passages
Page ix - And he who surveys the extent of intellect to which Ignatius Sancho had attained by self-education, will perhaps conclude, that the perfection of the reasoning faculties does not depend on a peculiar conformation of the skull or the colour of a common integument...
Page iii - Indignation, and the dread of constant reproach arising from the detection of an amour, infinitely criminal in the eyes of three maiden ladies, finally determined him to abandon the family.
Page iv - Freedom, riches, and leisure, naturally led a disposition of African texture into indulgences; and that which dissipated the mind of Ignatius completely drained the purse.
Page vii - Don Quixote" and had his portrait painted by Gainsborough and engraved by Bartolozzi. He was a correspondent with Garrick and Sterne and, apparently, something of a poet as well. "A commerce with the Muses was supported amid the trivial and momentary interruptions of a shop,
Page vii - Such was the man whose species philosophers and anatomists have endeavoured to degrade as a deterioration of the human; and such was the man whom Fuller, with a benevolence and quaintness of phrase peculiarly his own, accounted 'God's Image, though cut in Ebony.