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Browsing tag archives: Session 2

Madelyn’s blog Ottobah Cugoano’s Attack on Slavery and the Slave Trade

Ottobah Cugoano, born in the year 1757 in what is now Ghana, was captured at the age of 13 and sold on the Atlantic Slave Trade. Cugoano describes his capture in great detail in his autobiography, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery. Cugoano and others were tricked into thinking that they had done something wrong and needed to answer to the lord of the area. Each day Cugoano and his companions were told that they would speak to the lord soon, as he was very busy, but remained in captivity in the meantime. Eventually, Cugoano realized that something was wrong, and suspected that he wouldn’t be going home anytime soon. In his book, Cugoano writes of feeling betrayed by his fellow countrymen, who were the ones who captured him and led to his eventual enslavement.

Cugoano also wrote of the horrors he witnessed while aboard the slave ship. Women were raped, men were brutally punished, and their living conditions were abhorrent. His experience upon the slave ship was so bad that Cugoano recalls feeling relieved when he was purchased by an English man, as being this man’s slave was a relief compared to being aboard the ship. At one point, the men had collectively agreed that they would rather have been dead and made a plan (that was never executed) to blow up the ship and die in the flames.

In 1787, when he was around the age of 30, Cugoano published his book attacking the arguments of those who were pro-slavery. Equiano edited this book for Cugoano, but further analysis (mostly of the content in his private letters) suggests that Equiano may have rewritten large portions of the book and possibly added in sections of his own. Cugoano argued that slavery was a moral wrong, and that all Britons were guilty for being complicit in allowing the institution to continue on. In addition to arguing against the immorality of slavery, Cugoano suggested that ending the slave trade/slavery would actually be economically beneficial to Britain. For instance, he argued that black workers would be more productive, and therefore make more profits for Britain, if they were free people.

Compared with other black activists and writers of the time, such as Ignatius Sancho and Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Cugoano’s beliefs were much more assertive and radical. Edwards and Dabydeen describe his writing style to be aggressive, bitter, and urgent. For example, he was the first African to publicly suggest the total abolition of both the slave trade and slavery. While not much is known about Cugoano following the publishing of his book, it is clear that his activism and writing played a key role in spreading the message of anti-slavery to 18th century Britain.

Neave Feeney’s post on Ottobah Cugoano’s autobiography

A portrait of Ottobah Cugoano in London

A copy of Cugoano’s Autobiography

The source at hand is Ottobah Cugoano’s autobiography, a primary source – “Thoughts and Sentiments on the evil of slavery”, published in 1787, it recounts his experiences of life in slavery. Copies of his autobiography were sent to George III, Edmund Burke and other politicians and people in effective power, the source was originally created to describe the foul and destructive nature of the slave trade, where Cugoano publicly calls for abolishment of the slave trade and the freeing of all slaves, making his intended audience the white upper-class supporters of the slave trade, those who have the authority to positively impact the demolition. Ottobah Cugoano, also known as John Stuart was born circa 1757 in Ajumako, West Africa (present day Ghana). As a child he was captured and shipped to Grenada where he was sold as a slaved and forced to work on a plantation where he experienced “the most dreadful scenes of misery and cruelty.” Cugoano remained and worked in the West Indies until he was purchased by an English Merchant and brought to England in 1772 where he was granted his freedom and baptized, becoming ‘John Stuart. Within the next decade, he was to become a prominent leader of London’s Black community, acquainted with British political and cultural figures he was the first African to publicly demand the total abolition of the slave trade and the freeing of all slaves.

In his autobiography, Cugoano confidently conveys black radicalism, he shows understanding towards his good fortune post enslavement, however as Edwards and Dabydeen argue, importantly “never allows his argument to slip into the common hypocrisy of slave owners, that the benefits of Christian conversion outweigh the sufferings of slavery.” (page 40) As a free and educated man, he never forgets the tortuous and traumatic events which he encounters. In ‘Thoughts and Sentiments on the evil of slavery” Cugoano criticises and opposes religious and populous pro-slavery arguments, with a prominent tone throughout of bitterness and anger he demands the immediate abolition of slavery, while calling for punishment for slave holders. Cugoano is intelligently aware that the abolition of slavery in British colonies will only create white deceitfulness.

Problems within this text arise throughout with his consistent use of metaphoric language tainting the severity of the points he is wishing to prove. There is evidence that there was a biographer involved within the production of his autobiography, another British abolitionist, Olaudah Equiano, who extensively revised Cugoano’s writing before its publication, which I find to lessen the accuracy of his individual recounts throughout and heighten the political agenda. Yet I do find Cugoano’s writing convincing, the anger and bitterness in his tone, persuasive. The effectiveness of his life before slavery, the cruel and savage experience of his time in slavery and his constructed plan to achieve the emancipation of all slaves convinces the reader to encourage and support his actions.

The autobiography includes a letter written by Cugoano 1791 to Granville Sharp, a campaigner to for the abolishment of the slave trade which discusses arrangements for the transport of free blacks in Nova Scotia post American Wars of independence. The significance of this letter lies within Cugoano’s undeniable efforts and strive which show as evidence how committed he was to the cause. (page 52)

Relevant related works which have shown useful context and knowledge are Ignatius Sanchos letters, an Afro-British author in the 18th century who was sold into slavery in Britain to three sisters as an infant, wrote letters as ‘conscious strategies of protest’, he wasn’t subject to extreme forms of slavery like Cugoano, however the mere prejudices he received due to the colour of his skin made him conscious of his African origins, and thus, creating writings and memoirs of his experiences. (I have linked the chapter on Sancho. page 24)

This week’s topic of the 18th century black community: slaves, workers and writers fits into the theme of Cugoano’s autobiography as it recounts precise and personal experiences of a slave, the brutality and unrelenting torture which he endured in his early life due to the slave trade. The power of his writing in Britain has allowed a fraction of understanding of the hardships faced when struggling to reach emancipation of all slaves.

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/stir/reader.action?docID=6141537&ppg=56 – link to chapter on Sancho

Amy Gordon- Week 2 – Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Edwards and Dabydeen, Black Writers in Britain 1760-1890,

Ukawsaw Gronniosaw wrote A Narrative of the Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, An African Prince. Gronniosaw went by James Albert like many he was given the name by his master. The section of his narrative covered in Black Writers in Britain 1760-1890 by Edwards and Dabydeen describes Gronniosaw’s life just before he was sold into slavery and then he takes us through the stages of his life from his different masters in slavery and then his freedom. He then covers his travels to Amsterdam and his experiences there up until his life in extreme poverty with his wife and children. His wife was a white woman who was a weaver and he states that from the moment he met her he knew he loved her, “the person that was weaving looked about and smiled upon us and I loved her from that moment”.  His narrative was the first published in Britain by an African, showing just how significant he was as he was able to describe in his own words his experience and the hardships of his own life without being altered by a white person.

 

Religion is an important aspect of his narrative right from his experience of begging to be bought by a Dutch Captain on a slave ship where he states he said “Father, save me for I knew that if he did not buy me, I should be treated very ill” (page 10). And he also attributes God to him and his family being fed or for him getting employment when he was very desperate and describes him knowing that God will save them from starvation and poverty. He explains that he was “still hoping and believing that my God would not let us die but that it would please him to relieve us, which he almost did by miracle” (page 20). The people in Gronniosaw’s life taught him about God including his teacher that he had because he was sent to school by his master Mr Freelandhouse who was a minister, and who also taught him about God, “He took me home with him, and made me kneel down, and put my two hands together, and prayed for me”(page 12).

After these experiences and when he gained his freedom Gronniosaw headed to England but was very disappointed by the way Christians acted as he thought England was a Christian land he says, “I expected to find nothing but goodness, gentleness, and meekness in the Christian land, and I suffered great perplexity of mind at seeing so much wickedness.” (page 16). This shows just how he was taught to behave and what to believe as a Christian by his masters. It also must have been shocking to many British people who did not correlate Christianity with Black People at this point that he was devoted.

 

Overall, what Gronniosaw said in his narrative is very significant also as this would have been the first time for many reading it to hear experiences of slavery directly from an ex-slave.  However, his continuous mentioning of religion is not too unsurprising as this was one of the main purposes of his narrative, to show slaves that were heavily connected to God, and that they did not need to be free to experience god’s love by converting to Calvinism. This is due to his narrative being paid for by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntington, who was very involved in the Calvinist connexion. Due to this we have to be careful when interpretating Gronniosaw’s narrative as Calvinist beliefs suggested that slavery was a good thing as it allowed Africans to be taught about God.

A copy of “A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw” on display at the International Slavery Museum of London

HISU9G5 Course Blog

Welcome to the course blog for module HISU9G5

To get you thinking about your own blog report I have added a blog here from the National Archives which I hope is of interest to you.

Feel free to add any comments that you wish to make on this blog during the course of the semester.

Jacqueline 06/08/21

‘Brown Babies’: The children born to black GI and white British women during the Second World War

‘Brown Babies’: The children born to black GI and white British women during the Second World War

Monday 4 January 2021 |  and  | Records and research | 1 comment

In January 1942, after the US had entered the war, a large number of American servicemen (known as GIs) were shipped to Britain. Over the next three years approximately 3 million GIs passed through the country, of which approximately 8% were African-American.

From the moment the British government knew that US troops would be arriving, there was concern in official circles about the consequences of the presence of black GIs, not least a fear around the potential for mixed-race relationships and children. Home Secretary Herbert Morrison, for example, was anxious that ‘the procreation of half-caste children’ would create ‘a difficult social problem’ 1.

To avoid the birth of such ‘half-caste children’ – as official documents labelled this group – the government was keen to discourage the mixing of black troops and local women. It was proposed that ‘white women should not associate with coloured men. It follows then, they should not walk out, dance, or drink with them’.

These and other government suggestions were collated under the heading, typed in red ink: ‘MOST SECRET’ and ‘TO BE KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY’, primarily out of concern that aligning themselves with American policies of racial segregation would cause outrage throughout Britain’s colonies, where millions of black and Asian men and women were fighting on Britain’s behalf 2. The War Office decreed that the British Army should lecture their troops, including the women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, on the need to keep contact with black GIs to a minimum 3.

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In contrast, attitudes of the British public toward the black troops were initially very favourable. Reports from the Home Intelligence Unit (set up in November 1939 to monitor British morale) frequently mentioned people’s appreciation of ‘the extremely pleasing manners of the coloured troops’ 4. However, when British women started having relationships with black GIs there was voiced disapproval, with the Home Intelligence Report in August 1942 noting: ‘adverse comment is reported over girls who “walk out” with coloured troops’ 5.

If women in relationships with black GIs went on to have children, they generally faced a barrage of criticism. By October 1943 the Home Intelligence Unit was noting people’s rising concern about ‘the growing number of illegitimate babies, many of coloured men’ 6.

It is estimated that approximately 2,000 ‘brown babies’ were born in Britain during the war and nearly all of them were illegitimate. (‘Brown babies’ was the term given to these children by the African-American press). Every American serviceman had to receive permission to marry from his commanding officer (who in the UK were nearly all white) and avoidance of this permission was a court-martial offence. But for a black GI wanting to marry a white British woman, permission was invariably refused. According to black former GI Ormus Davenport, writing after the war, the US Army ‘unofficially had a “gentleman’s agreement” which became in practice official policy. The agreement said “No negro soldier or sailor will be given permission to marry any British white girl!”… Not one GI bride going back to the US under the US government scheme is the wife of a Negro’ 7.

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Nearly half of these babies were given up to local authorities or children’s homes, such were the difficulties and pressures facing the mothers: the stigma of having an illegitimate and ‘coloured’ child, and the fact that between a third and a half of the mothers were already married.

Many such babies born in Somerset were taken in by the local council and placed in a temporary nursery called Holnicote House, a National Trust property that had been requisitioned during the war by the council. Mothers who relinquished their babies hoped that they would be adopted, but adoption societies were loath to take black or mixed-race children, deeming them ‘too hard to place.’ Given difficulties in finding adopters for these children in Britain, Somerset Superintendent Health Visitor Celia Bangham was keen to arrange their adoption by their putative fathers, near relatives or other ‘coloured’ families in the US.

On 13 December 1945, the Home Secretary, James Chuter Ede, met with Miss Bangham and Victor Collins, MP for Taunton, to discuss the US adoption possibility. Chuter Ede was unenthusiastic: he worried about ‘the appalling discrimination made in many parts of the US against coloured people’. He also explained the legal position on adoption: under British law (the 1939 Adoption Act) children were only allowed to be sent abroad to live with British subjects or relatives. African-American couples who came forward to adopt were thus excluded from consideration, and since they were only deemed ‘putative’ fathers (there was no DNA testing for paternity until the 1960s), the black GIs were not considered to be relatives 8.

By December 1947 however, the Home Office and the Foreign Office had agreed to allow some children to be adopted in the US. The policy applied to ‘coloured’ children only, according to the Foreign Office, since white children were ‘an entirely different problem’ 9.

In what way they were ‘an entirely different problem’ was not spelt out. However the Home Office became worried about this overt exclusion of white children: there was ‘the need to avoid any suggestion that we in this country are trying to get rid of the coloured waifs left behind by the American occupation’ 10.

Yet getting ‘rid of the coloured waifs’ appears to be precisely what they were intending. Adoption by Americans was thus possible in 1948 but the border closed again in 1949, an official statement of explanation stating: ‘any implication that there is not a place in this country for coloured children who have not a normal life would cause controversy and give offense in some quarters.’

Documents from The National Archives have been invaluable in helping piece together this overlooked piece of history in the British experience of the Second World War. However, being official accounts, they portray a very specific perspective.

In order to understand the richer history, Professor Lucy Bland undertook interviews with many of these children, now in their seventies. The 60 accounts that she gathered together remind us that behind the government documents, newspaper articles and ‘outsider’ accounts through which what little history of the ‘Brown Babies’ has traditionally been told, are real people. The narratives reveal the ways in which so many of the children and their mothers, fathers and extended families experienced very painful and long-lasting personal, familial and emotional consequences due to the way how their mixed-race relationships and identities were perceived by those around them.

I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was just a reminder I suppose of what mum had done.

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Carole Travers, her mother and sister. Carole’s mother was already married with a child when Carole was born.

Yet also contained in their accounts are episodes and incidents of kindness and acceptance, alongside ongoing attitudes of perseverance and resilience.

[He said] ‘You’re my son aren’t you?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’… We got in the car and he said, ‘Are you gonna kill me?’… And I looked at him. And I just cried … And so did he. We just cried. It was … wonderful … I’d never cried.

Pictures of Richard Wright (left) and his father (right). Richard Wright, who managed to track down his father, Augustus, by making enquiries in a local bar near to an address he had been given by his birth mother.
Pictures of Richard Wright (left) and his father (right). Richard Wright, who managed to track down his father, Augustus, by making enquiries in a local bar near to an address he had been given by his birth mother.

These fascinating and moving stories form the heart of Lucy’s book Britain’s ‘Brown Babies’: The stories of children born to black GIs and white women in the Second World War (MUP, 2019) as well as a current digital exhibition curated in collaboration with The Mixed Museum.

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Both the book and the exhibition highlight the diversity and complexity of experience contained within the ‘Brown Babies’ history, alongside the way in which this history is rooted in a wider, long-standing history of the black and mixed-race presence in Britain itself.

To learn more, visit the ‘Brown Babies’ digital exhibition where you can contribute by sharing your reflections in the survey and creating digital postcards, or by sharing any personal history connected to racial mixing in wartime Britain in the exhibition’s community archive: www.mixedmuseum.org.uk/brown-babies.

Article written by Lucy Bland, Professor of Social and Cultural History at Anglia Ruskin University, and Dr Chamion Caballero, Director of The Mixed Museum.

Notes:

  1. PREM 4/26/9 ↩
  2. PREM 4/26/9, September 1942 ↩
  3. PREM 4/26/9 ↩
  4. e.g. INF 1/292, Home Intelligence Weekly Report, 23 July, 1942; 13 August 1942; 19 August 1942 ↩
  5. INF 1/292 Home Intelligence Weekly Report, 19 August 1942 ↩
  6. INF 1/292, Home Intelligence Weekly Report, 28 October 1943 ↩
  7. Ormus Davenport, ‘U.S. Prejudice dooms 1,000 British Babies,’ Reynolds’s News, 9 February 1947 ↩
  8. FO 371/51617, AN3/3/45, W.M.G. ‘Coloured Children of English Mothers and Negro Members of the United States Forces’, 14 December 1945 ↩
  9. FO 371/ AN3949/13/45, J E Jackson, Foreign Office, to B Lyon, Home Office, 16 December 1947 ↩
  10. FO 371/ AN4342/13/45, Home Office to Foreign Office, 24 December 1947 ↩

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