Free book: Black London: Life before Emancipation by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina

Want to know what life was like for Black people in 18th and early 19th Century London?  Well, now you can!  Black London by Gretchen Gerzina of Rutger University is now available for free to read online or download.

About the Book

(from rutgerspress.rutgers.edu)  Gerzina has written a fascinating account of London blacks, focusing on the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Because of a paucity of sources from blacks themselves, Gerzina had to rely primarily on glimpses through white eyes, especially those of antislavery advocate Granville Sharp. Gerzina is quite adept at culling evidence of a rich, complex black life, with significant interaction (and intermarriage) with the white community. Although subjected to much discrimination, London blacks never suffered as much as their American counterparts. The author rightly concludes that blacks have played an important role in the life of London for much of its history.


A great resource for anyone who writes age-of-sail fandoms!