Africans in eighteenth-century Ireland

Irish Historical Studies

Volumn 33, Issue 129, 2002, Pages 19-32

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EID: 10844277484     PISSN: 00211214     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021121400015480     Document Type: Review

References (50)

1. Freeman's Journal, 23-25 Oct. 1777.
2. For a general overview see H. W. Debrunner, Presence and prestige:Africans in Europe (Basel, 1979).
3. Works dealing with particular countries are S. T. McCloy, The negro in France (Lexington, Ky., 1961),
4. A. C. de C. M. Saunders, A social history of black slaves andfreedmen in Portugal, 1441-1555 (Cambridge, 1982).
5. Paul Edwards, The early African presence in the British Isles (Edinburgh, 1990) (inaugural lecture at the University of Edinburgh, published as an Occasional Paper by the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh);
6. June Evans, 'Africans/Caribbeans in Scotland: a socio-geographic study'(unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1996).
7. Reports were compiled of the numbers of black people in the differentregions of France, but complete figures were not computed: see McCloy, Negro in France, pp 51-2.
8. Pue's Occurrences, 7-11 June 1757.
9. Dublin Journal, 4-6 Oct. 1791.
10. According to McCloy, who studied the 1777-8 totals and other officialrecords, a figure not much above a thousand seems the likely upper limit for thenumber of black people in France at any time in the eighteenth century (McCloy, Negro in France, p. 52). A more recent study of black people under the ancienrégime gives the estimate made by the French Committee of Legislation in1782, of between 4, 000 and 5, 000 as the 'highest acceptable figure', but withoutmeeting the arguments that led McCloy to reject this as fantastic (Sue Peabody, 'There are no slaves in France': the political culture of race and slavery inthe ancien régime (Oxford, 1996), p. 4).
11. Interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano (6th ed., London, 1793), pp 358-9.
12. Equiano figures prominently in Paul Edwards and James Walvin (eds), Blackpersonalities in the era of the slave trader (London, 1983),
13. in S. J. Braidwood, Black poor and white philanthropists: London'sblacks and the foundation of the Sierra Leone settlement, 1786-1791 (Liverpool, 1994).
14. For the background to Equiano's visit to Ireland see Nini Rodgers, 'Equiano in Belfast: a study of the anti-slavery ethos in a northerntown' in Slavery and Abolition, xviii (1997), pp 73-89.
15. Peter Fryer, Staying power: the history of black people in Britain(London, 1984), pp 69-70,
16. quotes a description of a wedding involving black families from the StJames's Evening Post, 19-22 Mar. 1726.
17. Fryer, Staying power, p. 69.
18. Dublin Journal, 26-28 Aug. 1783.
19. Belfast News-Letter, 14 Sept. 1762.
20. Cork Journal, 15 Mar. 1762.
21. Dublin Mercury, 11-13 Aug. 1768.
22. For this distinction between a slave-owning and a slave society see P. D.Morgan, 'British encounters with Africans and African-Americans, circa1600-1780' in Bernard Bailyn and P. D. Morgan (eds), Strangers within the realm:cultural margins of the first British empire (Chapel Hill, 1991), pp 163-4.
23. Dublin Journal, 21-23 Nov. 1769.
24. Dublin Mercury, 10-12 July 1770;
25. Freeman's Journal, 17-19 July, 4-7, 11-14 Aug. 1770.
26. Bath Chronicle, 16 Mar. 1769.
27. Londonderry Journal, 13 June 1786.
28. Belfast News-Letter, 23 Feb. 1773.
29. Cork Evening Post, 6 Apr. 1769.
30. Leinster Journal, 8-11 July 1767.
31. For example, the reference to a 'Black-a-moor Kettle-Drummer' in the 1779riding of the franchises in Dublin Evening Post, 26 July 1783.
32. Hibernian Journal, 10-12 Mar. 1773.
33. A second performance was advertised but did not take place (Dublin Journal, 27-30 Mar. 1773).
34. Dublin Journal, 4-8 Apr. 1758.
35. Freeman's Journal, 19-21 Aug. 1783; P.R.O.N.I., T/3765/J/1/2/3. Thedebate which preceded his being allowed to vote seems to have revolved aroundthe claim that he had married a Catholic rather than the colour of his skin.
36. Freeman's Journal, 21-23 Apr. 1785.
37. Belfast News-Letter, 5-8 Sept. 1786.
38. J. W. Hammond, 'George's Quay and Rogerson's Quay in the eighteenthcentury' in Dublin Hist. Rec., v (1942-3), p.50.
39. Dublin Journal, 17-20 June, 13-15 July 1780.
40. Walker's Hibernian Magazine, Oct. 1783.
41. Sir Jonah Barrington's story of Dr Ahmet Borumborad shows that the caseof Ben Ali was not unique (see Barrington, Personal sketches of his own times (3vols, London, 1827-32), i, 230-42). So also does the following: 'It is the fateof this country to be eternally the dupe of schemers and imposters, Mr Omer, MrDucart, J. Wynn Baker, and the Irish Turk, have successively and successfullyplayed on our simplicity and credulity' (Belfast Mercury, 9 Mar. 1786, quotingthe Volunteer Journal).
42. Freeman's Journal, 19-21 June 1787.
43. Dublin Journal, 10-13 Feb. 1750.
44. For Rachael Baptist's performances between 1750 and 1756 see the index to Brian Boydell, A Dublin musical calendar, 1700-60 (Blackrock, 1988).
45. John O'Keeffe, Recollections of the life of John O'Keeffe (2 vols, London, 1826), i, 66.
46. Finn's Leinster Journal, 21-25 Nov. 1767. I have not so far been able tocorroborate any details of her English performances from an independent source.
47. Limerick Chronicle, 23 Oct. 1768.
48. Cork Evening Post, 4 June, 9 July 1770.
49. Belfast News-Letter, 27 Oct. 1772.
50. Londonderry Sentinel, 18 Oct. 1834. I owe this information to Nuala McAllister.