Author Description

Black Americans informed the Victorian British and Irish about slavery and repression in the United States. Villages, towns and cities from Dorchester to Cambridge, Belfast to Hull, Dumfries to Brighton, also learned of their ambitions and achievements. Numerous publications were sold everywhere, and lectures were crowded. The refugees settled in Britain. Some worked as domestic servants, others qualified as doctors, wrote books, taught in schools, laboured in factories and on ships. The youngsters went to school. This book documents refugees, settlers, and their families as well as pioneering entertainers in both minstrel shows and stage adaptions of the 1850s best-selling novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. It offers new perspectives on both Victorian and Afro-America history.