I’m reading Black and British by David Olusoga, a terrific read
reaching back to Roman times when forces of Afro-Romans arrived in the third
century and were stationed in Cumbria. Olusoga sweeps forward through the
Blackamoors, during Elizabethan times, to Black Britains who fought at
Trafalgar, through to the wars of the 20th century. He writes much
about the Georgian fashion for having a young black pageboy, such children were
often treated like pets among the wealthy, dressed up and feted but often
having little freedom or education.
Kat Armstrong wrote about this fashion in her historical
crime novel A Pair of Sharp Eyes. When our young heroine, Coronation Ames first
meets young Abraham, nicknamed Pug by his mistress, he is receiving kisses from
his “Bristol Mama”. However, when they are alone, he shows Coronation a collar his mistress makes
him wear.
He bears a silver collar, engraved with ‘Abraham’ in
large capitals. The boy unclasps the fastening. ‘Won’t you try it on?’ ‘I had
rather not,’ I say, laughing, but to please him I stoop and he carefully places
the collar about my neck. The silver is cold and heavy and exceedingly
uncomfortable. ‘I can’t see my feet,’ I say, as my jaw catches on the rim. The
collar is four inches wide, and not generously made; it pinches my throat.
‘Last time she tried to make me wear it I struggled until she gave up and had
me whipped.’
David Olugosa’s Black and British is hugely readable and to
say it fills gaps in the average knowledge is an understatement. However, fiction
can put the paint on history, illustrate the story, make it more vivid than any
history book. I won’t spoil the novel by telling you what happens to young
Abraham and Coronation, but I will give you a link to the early pages so that
you can become acquainted with A Pair of Sharp Eyes by Kat Armstrong.