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Blackness in Britain

Black studies is a hugely important, and yet undervalued, academic field of enquiry that is
marked by its disciplinary absence and omission from academic curricula in Britain. There is a
long and rich history of research on Blackness and Black populations in Britain. However
Blackness in Britain has too often been framed through the lens of racialised deficits,
constructed as both marginal and pathological.
Blackness in Britain attends to and grapples with the absence of Black studies in Britain
and the parallel crisis of Black marginality in British society. It begins to map the field of
Black studies scholarship from a British context, by collating new and established voices from
scholars writing about Blackness in Britain. Split into five parts, it examines:

• Black studies and the challenge of the Black British intellectual;

• revolution, resistance and state violence;
• Blackness and belonging;
• exclusion and inequality in education;
• experiences of Black women and the gendering of Blackness in Britain.

This interdisciplinary collection represents a landmark in building Black studies in British

academia, presenting key debates about Black experiences in relation to Britain, Black Europe
and the wider Black diaspora. With contributions from across various disciplines including
sociology, human geography, medical sociology, cultural studies, education studies, post-
colonial English literature, history and criminology, the book will be essential reading for
scholars and students of the multi- and interdisciplinary area of Black studies.

Kehinde Andrews is Associate Professor of Sociology at Birmingham City University, UK.

Lisa Amanda Palmer is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Birmingham City University, UK.
Routledge Research in Race and Ethnicity

2 Black Masculinity and Sexual Politics

Anthony J. Lemelle, Jr.

3 Represent
Art and Identity Among the Black Upper-Middle Class
Patricia A. Banks

4 Blackness and Transatlantic Irish Identity

Celtic Soul Brothers
Lauren Onkey

5 Music, Difference and the Residue of Race

Jo Haynes

6 Black Citizenship and Authenticity in the Civil Rights Movement

Randolph Hohle

7 Migrants and Race in the US

Territorial Racism and the Alien/Outside
Philip Kretsedemas

8 The Black Professional Middle Class

Race, Class, and Community in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Eric S. Brown

9 Race and Class Distinctions Within Black Communities

A Racial-Caste-in-Class
Paul Camy Mocombe, Carol Tomlin and Cecile Wright

10 Making Diaspora in a Global City

South Asian Youth Cultures in London
Helen Kim

11 A Moral Economy of Whiteness

 Four Frames of Racializing Discourse
Steve Garner

12 Race and the Origins of American Neoliberalism

Randolph Hohle

13 Experiences of Islamophobia
Living with Racism in the Neoliberal Era
James Carr

14 Immigration, Assimilation, and the Cultural Construction of American National

Identity
Shannon Latkin Anderson

15 Blackness in Britain
Edited by Kehinde Andrews and Lisa Amanda Palmer
Blackness in Britain

Edited by Kehinde Andrews and

Lisa Amanda Palmer
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2016 2016 selection and editorial matter, Kehinde Andrews and Lisa Amanda Palmer; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-1-138-84063-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-73274-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents

Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements

Introduction
LISA AMANDA PALMER

PART I
Black studies and the challenge of the Black British intellectual

1 The absence of Black studies in Britain

LISA AMANDA PALMER

2 Invisible Outsider: reflections from beyond the ivory tower

MARTIN GLYNN

PART II
Revolution, resistance and state violence

3 The case of the two Williams: Black revolutionists in nineteenth-century Britain

TONY TALBURT

4 Black is a country: Black people in the West as a colonised minority

KEHINDE ANDREWS

5 Violence old and new: from slavery to Serco

ADAM ELLIOTT-COOPER

PART III
Blackness and belonging

6 Black British writing and an English literary belonging

HELEN COUSINS

7 Grime central! Subterranean ground-in grit engulfing manicured mainstream spaces

MONIQUE CHARLES

8 Is David Starkey right or has the Jamaican Bible Movement lost its mind? language
and atonement
 ROBERT BECKFORD

PART IV
Exclusion and inequality in education

9 The ties that bind: questions of Empire and belonging in Black British educational
activism
NICOLE M. JACKSON

10 The British school-to-prison pipeline

KAREN GRAHAM

11 Black mixed-race British males and the role of school teachers: new theory and
evidence
REMI JOSEPH-SALISBURY

PART V
Black women and the gendering of Blackness in Britain

12 Managing diversity: professional and managerial Black African women’s work lives
in the UK private sector
DIANE CHILANGWA FARMER

13 Young Black British women: defining a sense of self in relation to Hip Hop and
Dancehall musical genres
DIONNE TAYLOR

14 Learning from the liminal: conducting health research in African Caribbean

communities
NICOLE ANDREWS

Conclusion

Changing the nature, not just the face, of the academy

KEHINDE ANDREWS

Index
Contributors

Kehinde Andrews is Associate Professor in Sociology at Birmingham City University. His

book Resisting Racism: Race, Inequality and the Black Supplementary School Movement
(Trentham Books, 2013), examines the legacy of Black radicalism in alternative education
provision in the UK.
Nicole Andrews is Lecturer in Health and Social Care at Newman University. Her research is
concerned with understanding health in African Caribbean communities and how such
knowledge can be used within NHS Primary Care to improve health outcomes for members
of our communities in the UK.
Robert Beckford is Professor of Theology and Culture in the African Diaspora at Canterbury
Christ Church University in Kent. He is an award-winning television documentary
filmmaker, having made over 23 films for the BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery USA. His
reflection on the theological politics of television Documentary as Exorcism: Resisting the
Bewitchment of Colonial Christianity (Bloomsbury, 2013). His current research, a critique
of academic language, is a collaboration with reggae–dancehall, Grime and Jazz artists in
the UK. It will be published as a written text and also disseminated as a music album.
Monique Charles is a PhD candidate at the University of Warwick. Her thesis, ‘Hallowed be
thy Grime?: A Musicological and Sociological Genealogy of Grime Music and its Relation
to Black Atlantic Religious Discourse’ is an analysis of Grime music; Black British youth,
culture and religious meaning.
Helen Cousins is Reader in Postcolonial Literature at Newman University. She researches in
African and African diaspora contemporary literature with a specific interest in Black
British writers; and postcolonial prize winners and best sellers. She serves on the executive
committee of the Postcolonial Studies Association as membership secretary.
Adam Elliott-Cooper is a PhD student in the Department of Geography, University of Oxford,
researching Black-led social movements, policing and the racialisation of space. He has
written for a number of publications, as well as working as a youth worker and community
organiser in Hackney, Haringey and Newham.
Diane Chilangwa Farmer is Research Associate in the Department of Business at Kingston
University and holds an MSc from Birkbeck, University of London and a PhD from London
School of Economics. She has presented her research on gender, work and organisations in
the UK and internationally. Diane’s book, Black Women in Management: Paid Work and
 Family Formations was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013.
Martin Glynn is Lecturer in Criminology with over 25 years’ experience of working in
prisons and schools. He has a Cert. Ed, a Masters degree in criminal justice policy and
practice, and gained his PhD at Birmingham City University in February 2013. His new
book Black Men, Invisibility, and Desistance from Crime: Towards a Critical Race Theory
from Crime, was published by Routledge early in 2014.
Karen Graham is Lecturer in Working with Children, Young People and Families at Newman
University. She is a former prison teacher and sociologist. She completed her Doctoral
research ‘Does School Prepare Men for Prison? The Life Histories of 11 Former Prisoners’
at University of Birmingham.
Nicole M. Jackson is Assistant Professor of History at Bowling Green State University. She is
a scholar of African American and African Diaspora history. Her dissertation, ‘The Politics
of Care: Black Community Activism in England and the United States’ considers post-WWII
Black activism on education, policing and health.
Remi Joseph-Salisbury is a PhD student at the University of Leeds as well as a teaching
associate in the School of Sociology and Social Policy. He is currently conducting research
considering the experiences of ‘mixed’ (White and Black African Caribbean) males in UK
education and has broad interests in race, ethnicity, racism and identity.
Lisa Amanda Palmer is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Birmingham City University. She is
author of ‘ “LADIES A YOUR TIME NOW!” Erotic Politics, Lovers’ Rock and Resistance
in the UK’, republished in Archipelagos of Sound: Transnational Caribbeanities, Women
and Music (University of the West Indies Press, 2012) and ‘Black Masculinity and Lover’s
Rock’ in Black Popular Music in Britain since 1945, edited by John Stratton and Nabeel
Zuberi (Ashgate, 2014).
Tony Talburt is Visiting Lecturer in the Department of African Studies at the University of
Cape Coast, Ghana. His PhD is in international politics and development from London South
Bank University. His publications include: Food of the Plantation Slaves of Jamaica
(Trafford Publishing, 2004), Rum, Rivalry and Resistance: Fighting for the Caribbean
Spirit (Hansib Publishing, 2010) and a children’s novel History on the Page: Adventures in
Black British History (New Generation Publishing, 2012).
Dionne Taylor is Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology, interested in issues relating to
gender, identity, education and ‘Black’ popular cultures. She is completing her PhD at
Birmingham City University and has also achieved PG Cert HE, PGCE, BA (Hons)
Sociology. She was presented the Letisha and Charlene Education Award in 2009.
Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all those who attended the first Blackness in Britain interdisciplinary
conference held in 2013 which bought together academics and community activists working in
this field. This book emerged as a direct result of the conference and would not have been
possible without their support. We would also like to say a big thank you to all of the
contributors to the Blackness in Britain book publication and everybody who has supported
the development of Black studies in British higher education.
Introduction
Lisa Amanda Palmer

The purpose of Blackness in Britain is to attend to and grapple with the absence of Black
studies and the parallel crisis of Black marginality in British society. Black studies is a hugely
important and yet undervalued academic field of enquiry that is marked by its disciplinary
absence and omission from academic curricula in Britain. There is a long and rich history of
research on Blackness and Black British populations. However Blackness has been frequently
and too often framed through the lens of racialised deficits constructed as both marginal and
pathological. Contrary to Blackness as pathology, landmark publications such as The Empire
Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain (1982), The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s
Lives in Britain (1985), Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (1984),
Black British Feminism: A Reader (1997), There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack (2006)
and Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order (2013) have all located
Blackness as a critical epistemological location that produces important cultural, social,
theoretical and political perspectives on Black life and its relationships with Britain and the
wider Black diaspora.
Ironically, British Black studies as a field of critical enquiry is taken much more seriously in
the US academy where a generation of Black British scholarship has been produced by African
American Scholars and Black British scholars who have migrated to the US. Shamefully,
British institutional support for Black studies has been at best poor and at worst non-existent.
This book represents a new generation of academics engaged with scholarly activism around
Black studies in Britain who seek to place this important field of enquiry on to the academic
curriculum and contribute to the development of this academic discipline in Britain.
The book’s key objective is to begin to map the field of Black studies scholarship from a
British context by collating new and established voices from scholars writing about Blackness
in Britain. The contributors to Blackness in Britain work in a number of academic disciplines
and so reflect the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach of Black studies. The main
themes are grounded methodologically within and across various disciplines including
sociology, human geography, medical sociology, cultural studies, education studies, post-
colonial English literature, history and criminology.
While Black studies scholarship is widely dispersed throughout the academy there have
been no publications that self-identify as Black studies in Britain. What is constituted as Black
studies is also highly contested and fiercely debated (James, 1969). For the purpose of this
book, and indeed what makes this book distinctive, is that Black studies will be located within
the routes (Clifford, 1997) of African/African Caribbean diasporas in Britain on the grounds
that it is the racialised specificity of ‘Blackness’ (as opposed to political Blackness as a
location for ‘non-White’ anti-racism) that this publication seeks to address. African diasporic
routes foreground the spaces and processes of Black racialisation within the unfolding of
Western modernity through African transatlantic enslavement, the early Black presence in
Britain in the nineteenth century, to subsequent post-war migrations and contemporary
transnational movements of Black African populations through and to Britain. The Diasporic
model we are proposing encompasses an understanding of the colonial formations of
racialisation that point to constructions of Blackness within the Western imperialistic
framework. British enslavement of Africans was one part of the wider project of European
imperialism. While not all Black populations in the African diaspora in Britain have a history
of European enslavement, Black populations within Britain have been and continue to be
impacted by forms of racism, Western imperialism and domination. How the African diaspora
understands and responds to racism and imperialistic forms of Western power underpins the
critical concerns of this book.
We also recognise that there are numerous Black diasporic populations outside of the
African diaspora formulation proposed in this volume, specifically populations in India,
Australia, South America and the Pacific territories who have also experienced forms of
racialised oppression through the British and European colonial enterprise (Fryer, 1984).
Their absence from this book presents the possibility of future research on the transnational
trajectories of Blackness. However, for the purpose of this volume, Blackness in Britain is
being constructed through the lens of the African Caribbean and Black African diaspora, while
recognising that this is by no means a category that can capture the full complexity of Blackness
in Britain.
In the context of building on existing debates on Black life in Britain, this book shares some
of the same concerns as Paul Gilroy’s (2002) essay The Black Atlantic by considering the
ways in which the racialised experiences of Black people and populations have become
embedded within the processes of Western modernity (Gilroy, 1993). As Gilroy argues,
‘diaspora is still indispensable in focusing on the political and ethical dynamics of the
unfinished history of blacks in the modern world’ (Gilroy, 1993, 80). However, what
Blackness in Britain does differently to The Black Atlantic is that it positions itself explicitly
within the discipline of Black studies in Britain. Therefore, one key objective of this book is to
build on and contribute to recent developments in academic activism in the UK to help
mobilise and embed Black studies as a discipline within British higher education. These
developments include the Blackness in Britain conference in 2013, the ‘Why isn’t my professor
black?’ campaign that highlighted the underrepresentation of Black professors in the British
academy alongside ‘Why is my curriculum white?’, a student-led movement to dismantle the
Eurocentric cannon. We see this book as further contributing to debates concerning the ‘the
unfinished history of blacks in the modern world’ (Gilroy, 1993, 80) in order to argue that the
lived experience of Blackness is an important location for the production of knowledge.
Earlier publications by Paul Gilroy and Stuart Hall emerged from the ground-breaking work
that developed from The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of
Birmingham during the late 1970s and 1980s. Policing the Crisis (1978) and There Ain’t No
Black in the Union Jack were troubled by questions of systematic forms of racism in Britain
that governed how Black communities were positioned, policed, marginalised and excluded by
the British nation state. How Hall and Gilroy responded to these questions was also grounded
in shifting public and intellectual debates about Black British populations away from
monolithic and one-dimensional notions of Blackness. The end of the innocent Black subject,
to paraphrase Hall, signalled an end to simplistic assumptions about Black communities
speaking as a singular unitary voice. As Hall wrote, ‘the black subject cannot be represented
without reference to the divisions of class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity’ (Morley and Chen,
1996, 8).
The importance of this paradigm shift in Blackness continues to this day where recent
publications such as Black Europe and the African Diaspora (2009), What’s Left of
Blackness: Feminisms, Transracial Solidarities, and the Politics of Belonging in Britain
(2012) and Image Matters: Archive, Photography and the African Diaspora (2012) all
document accounts that explicitly complicate Blackness in relation to questions of gender,
diaspora and the transnational in their readings of Black Britain. It is also important to say that
much of this research is taking place outside of the British higher education system. All three
publications cited here were written by scholars writing about Black Britain from the US
academy. With the demise and dispersal of cultural studies as a unitary discipline within the
British academy we seek to establish Black studies as a disciplinary home for the study of
Black diasporic and transnational peoples, publics and populations in Britain.
This edited collection is distinctive because it is the first edited volume of essays to
explicitly define and locate itself within the discipline of Black studies from a British location.
This is in light of the fact that people of African ancestries have had a long and disputed
history in relation to the UK. This history has been marked by a number of struggles against
discrimination and for political forms of social justice. In the present context of globalised and
mediated forms of anti-Blackness, the reshaping and dismantling of the British welfare state, as
well as the UK’s attempts to reposition itself in relation to Europe, it is essential that the
present and future challenges that lie ahead for Black populations in Britain are given critical
attention and thoughtful examination. Academia needs to play a central role in researching and
entering into the necessary debates about the present condition of Blackness in Britain, in spite
of the continuing reality of marginalised Black voices within the British academy. The political
nature of this volume of essays will engage with these critical debates and discourses while
asking challenging questions about the future of Blackness in Britain.

Structure of the book

The collection is split into five sections that explore the interconnections of Blackness in
Britain. In the first part, Black Studies and the Challenge of the Black British Intellectual
Lisa Amanda Palmer discusses the absence of Black studies in the British academy not only as
a sign of the wider systematic exclusion of Black communities in Britain but also as a symptom
that further reveals the epistemological absence of Blackness in the formation of the West
itself. Martin Glynn explores ideas of academic subordination ‘invisibility’ and racialisation
while doing auto-ethnographic research as an ‘on-road’ criminologist. Both chapters raise
questions regarding the Black intellectual’s role in developing critical spaces that attend to the
epistemological and social needs of Black communities. In Part II, Revolution, Resistance and
State Violence, Tony Talburt examines Black radicalism in the nineteenth century by exploring
the political activities of William Cuffay and William Davidson and their pivotal roles in the
Chartist movement and the Cato Street conspiracy in nineteenth century Britain. Kehinde
Andrews uses sociological tools to question Western definitions of the nation state by
proposing a Pan-African Black diasporic nation and Adam Elliott-Cooper examines the role of
state violence as a form of social control. From the transatlantic slave trade to the transnational
security companies, Cooper argues that violence is not simply a feature of state power, but
central to its very existence. Importantly, within these chapters, the interrogative debates
around ‘Black Britain’s’ colonial and imperial inheritances are questions that lay at the centre
of the troubled and contested relationship between Blackness and Britain. These questions
frame how Blackness has been historically entangled and assembled at specific points within
the British colonial project. This colonial dimension is important because it establishes the
logic, material conditions and the continuing racialised rationale for the subjugation of Black
peoples and populations within the British state. These chapters further demarcate Britain as
an important territory for Black-led action and resistance from as early as the Cato Street
Conspiracy and Radical Chartist movements in the nineteenth century to contemporary forms of
community resistance and activism amongst Black communities in Britain. The intention of this
section is to map continuities of Black resistance against the continuing legacies of colonialism
and imperialism that are evident and perpetuated in the persistence of racism in British society.
Rather than reconstructing this important history of resisting oppression in a linear historical
narrative, our aim is to point to the enduring persistence of racism and the strategies deployed
to defeat its grip on Black lives in Britain.
Part III, Blackness and Belonging, is concerned with the way racialisation begins to frame
notions of belonging that work to maintain social exclusions and marginality within British
culture and society. Helen Cousins interrogates Englishness in relation to English literature by
asking questions about literary belonging in the writings of Black British novelist Helen
Oyeyemi and her location as a writer both within and outside of the discipline of English
literature. Monique Charles identifies key signature sounds used in Grime music to show how
these sonically Black sounds are heavily utilised by African diaspora musical traditions while
also arguing that Grime is an authentically British music. Robert Beckford considers how
language and power are interrelated by presenting the Jamaican New Testament Translation
(2012) as a political text against linguistic imperialism and as claim for differentiated
belonging. These chapters point to Blackness in Britain as a shifting diasporic category where
the aesthetical borders of belonging become contested locations for understanding differential
meanings of Blackness in Britain.
In Part IV, Exclusion and Inequality in Education, Nicole Jackson examines post-WWII
migration to England where Black children in English schools were shaped by a colonial
relationship where first wave migrants from the Caribbean saw England as their home. By
focusing on the historical and contemporary importance of empire the chapter argues that Black
parent-activists challenged the premise of a White Englishness intent on obliterating a more
inclusive understanding of Britishness. Karen Graham asks if Britain has a school-to-prison
pipeline that affects poor and Black children more than most. The chapter considers this
question by focusing on the discourse of discipline and behaviour in UK educational policy
and practice and by considering the perennial relationship between poor educational outcomes,
school exclusion and the increased likelihood of offending. Remi Joseph-Salisbury studies the
complex relationship between mixedness and Blackness by reflecting on the specific
educational experiences faced by Black mixed-race males. He argues that the Black mixed-
race male, despite notably low attainment and high exclusion rates, remains a salient omission
from the activist and scholarly work focusing on ethnic minority educational experiences in
Britain. In highlighting both commonalities and differences between Blackness and Black-
mixedness, this chapter seeks to move towards a reconceptualisation of Blackness that
adequately reflects the experiences of a growing segment of this population. These chapters
highlight the continuing racialisation of the lived experiences of Black young people where
institutional barriers faced by Black communities in Britain remain persistent and pervasive
both within the education system as well as across the wider social spectrum of British
society.
In the final part, Black Women and the Gendering of Blackness in Britain, specific themes
emerge around the racialised experiences of Black African and African Caribbean women in
Britain. Dianne Chilangwa Farmer examines the experiences of Black women from Sub-
Saharan African countries who are highly educated and employed in middle and senior middle
management roles within transnational global corporations. Her chapter addresses how
equality laws in the UK as well as immigration law impact their career progression. Dionne
Taylor explores ‘defining a sense of self’ in relation to young Black women and their reception
of hip-hop and reggae dancehall culture by examining the problematic representations of Black
female bodies within these genres. Nicole Andrews examines how Black African Caribbean
women have developed alternative knowledge of health and wellbeing within ‘liminal’ spaces.
Her chapter aims to explore cultural narratives of embodiment, health and wellbeing within
African Caribbean communities. In recent years, there has been a dearth in scholarship that
theorises the lived experiences of Black women in Britain. The scarcity of Black female
scholarship in Britain is detrimental to the development of knowledge about the lived
experiences of Black women and Black communities. Indeed, the critical focus on Black
women is essential to the epistemological grounding of Black studies in Britain. Black studies
are therefore inseparable from intersectionality and so we seek to position this book in relation
to this political, methodological and theoretical space. By intersectional we are seeking to
draw attention to constructions of Blackness that draw upon the intersections of race, class,
gender, nation and location as thematic concerns to emerge from the Blackness in Britain
conference proceedings but also as being yet another ‘fact of Blackness’ that is under
researched and under theorised. We recognise that intersections of sexuality, disability and
ageing are notable and important absences within this study that signal future areas for critical
analysis, development and research to expand our understanding of the complexity of
Blackness in Britain.

References
Bryan, B. (1985) Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain. London: Virago.
Fryer, P. (1984) Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, London: Pluto Press.
Gilroy, P. (2002) The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London: Verso.
Campt, T. (2012) Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the African Diaspora in
Europe. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (1978) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and
Law and Order. London: Macmillan.
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (1983) The Empire Strikes Back. London:
Hutchinson.
Clifford, J. (1997) Routes: Travel and Translation in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
Fisher, T. (2012) What’s Left of Blackness: Feminisms, Transracial Solidarities, and the
Politics of Belonging in Britain. London: Palgrave.
Gilroy, P. (1993) The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London: Verso.
Gilroy, P. (2002) There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and
Nation. Oxford: Routledge.
Hine, D., Keaton, T. and Small, S. (2009) Black Europe and the African Diaspora. Chicago:
University of Illinois Press.
James, C. L. R (1969) ‘Black Studies and the Contemporary Student’. In C. L. R James At the
Rendevous of Victory: Selected Writings. London: Allison and Busby.
Morley, D. and Chen, K. (eds) (1996) Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies.
London: Routledge.
Part I

Black studies and the challenge of the Black

British intellectual
1 The absence of Black studies in Britain
Lisa Amanda Palmer

How do we begin to explain the glaring absence of Black studies within the British academy?
One explanation is that the absence of Black studies is tied to very old and familiar histories of
institutional racism, inequality within higher education and the deeply entrenched Eurocentric
production of knowledge. Without doubt, the British academy remains an overwhelming White
space. As studies in critical Whiteness have shown, Whiteness is not sufficient by any
measurement to account for the plurality of human experience although Whiteness has
frequently assumed the posture of the universal subject (Dyer, 1997; Morrison, 1992).
Currently, Black people make up just 1.2 per cent of UK national academics. If we include
non-UK Black nationals we see a meagre but notable rise to 1.6 per cent (Equality Challenge
Unit, 2014). By contrast, Black student numbers have increased in the past 20 years showing
they are disproportionately over represented as a student body (Tatlow, 2015). However,
while the visible increase of Black students on British university campuses is encouraging,
their representation does not take account of the heaviness of what David Theo Goldberg
(2009) has called ‘the weight of racism’, carried by many Black students who feel alienated
and marginalised inside the British academy (National Union of Students, 2011). As the
National Union of Students Black Student Officer Malia Bouattia, states,

The conversation [about race] has been considerably watered down to the extent that the
use of terms like ‘racism’ or even discrimination to describe students experiences are
rarely uttered and the HE sector and institutions rarely criticised let alone held
accountable for what black students are facing.
(Bouattia, 2015, 26)

The dominance of the Eurocentric canon remains a significant barrier to learning for Black
students (NUS, 2011). Student-led campaigns such as ‘Why is my curriculum white?’ and
‘Rhodes must fall Oxford’ – a campaign in solidarity with Students from the University of
Cape Town to decolonise their curriculum and campus – point to the ubiquitous production and
reproduction of Eurocentric thought paradigms both internationally and within British
universities. These campaigns not only seek to oppose the White curriculum, they are
politically engaged in transforming the academy to build structures of knowledge beyond the
tightly guarded and narrowly focused Eurocentric lens. There are currently no named Black
studies degree programmes, departments or centres located within the British university system
despite a dynamic and rich tradition of Black intellectual activism and thought both within and
outside the academy (Warmington, 2014).
In this chapter I want to discuss the glaring absence of Black studies in the British academy
and the problem this exposes in terms of reinforcing and revealing the ways Black lives and
Black intellectual thought are seen as inconsequential to British society and to the production
of knowledge within the British universities. The normativity of anti-Black intellectual thought
in British universities is a sign of the wider systematic exclusion of Black communities in
Britain. Thus this chapter is also concerned with questions about the role of the Black
intellectual and how we might chose to be politically positioned in relation to the purpose and
development of Black studies in Britain. Are we to be the public image of neoliberal forms of
Black social mobility – a Black bourgeois, or do our epistemological questions, concerns and
allegiances move us beyond the neoliberalised structures that we work and live within.
There is little doubt that the material, political and structural barriers to Black studies in
Britain remain stark and dismal. However, while the bleak realities of institutional racism
reveal our continuing absence (Richards, 2014), we must also consider the complex
epistemological reticence amongst some Black intellectual thinkers in the Black British
diaspora as to the shape and purpose of the discipline itself. These reservations are concerned
with how the Black subject is positioned in relation to narratives of the West’s formation and
with the routing of Black studies as an ‘ethnic’ sideshow to Eurocentric histories; and the
disavowal of a specific epistemological position that examines the unfolding of history and
modernity from the position of the Black subject. In 1969, C. L. R. James cautioned against the
epistemological pitfalls of Black studies in his essay, ‘Black Studies and the Contemporary
Student’, where he wrote that,

Now to talk to me about black studies as if it’s something that concerned black people is
an utter denial. This is the history of Western Civilization. I can’t see it otherwise. This is
the history that black people and white people and all serious students of modern history
and the history of the world have to know. To say that this is some sort of ethnic problem
is a lot of nonsense.
(James, 1969, 397)

James positions his argument to deliberately move away from the idea that there are White
knowledges and Black knowledges that produce two binary distinct and unrelated histories and
epistemological categories. The Black presence in the West in James’s view, should be seen as
interconnected and inseparable from how we understand the formation and assemblage of
Western modernity. James understood that studies in Black peoples and Black histories have
been neglected for far too long. However, he had anticipated the danger that Black studies
could be easily dismissed as a tokenistic gesture by White university institutions to placate
Black demands for Black critical thought and analysis within the academy (James, 1969).
While James was warning us to be mindful of the seemingly inherent perils of ghettoising
Black studies as a peculiar ‘add on’ to studies in Western civilisation, he saw the ethnic
distinctions between ‘White studies’ and ‘Black studies’ as a false dichotomy. In other words
how can we begin to study Western civilisation within the context of the academy without the
development of an epistemological framework that specifically addresses ‘the fact of
blackness’ (Fanon, 1967) inside the West’s formation. For James, to teach Black studies was to
situate Black people within the vast social events that have taken place to transform Europe
from the period of the late Middle Ages to emergent modern industrial societies,

This is what I want you to bear in mind. Number one: The wealth that enabled society to
make the big transition was rooted in the slave trade, slavery and the industries that came
from it. And secondly, in the struggle by which the bourgeois established the political and
social structure of this new form in the very front line, fighting as well as anybody else
and better than most, in France in the French Revolutionary war, and in the American
Civil war, were the ex-slaves.
(James, 1969, 397)

Black people, far from being marginal players within these Western historical narratives, were
central protagonists in the formation of what we understand as the West (James, 1969). James
argued that Black people not only provided the wealth that came from Western colonial and
imperial projects, they were situated at the forefront of those struggles that constitute our
knowledge and understanding of how the West defines itself (James, 1969). This is particularly
important within the context of the UK because, by and large, the intellectual contributions of
Black people are overlooked, obscured or ignored (Warmington, 2014). This becomes evident
in relation to how Britishness is still understood and assembled as a distinctive and
exclusionary classification of Whiteness. White British ways of knowing and the assumed
universalisms associated with it, become elevated epistemological categories that serve to
valorise and validate knowledges produced from the context of being White and British.
Walter Mignolo (2011) might call this the ‘Western Code’ an epistemology that is positioned as
the only game in town that serves the interests of a small proportion of humanity (Mignolo,
2011, xii). The code works by committing a series of racialised exclusions by implementing
systems of knowledge and governance based on the logic of White hegemony, White privilege
and White supremacy. It further operates as an inward-looking reductive category where the
particularity of being British is frequently (mis)understood, symbolically and discursively as
being ethnically White and universal at the same time. In this binary structure of knowing, the
‘other’ is constituted as the inferior ‘oriental’, the ‘savage’ or ‘immigrant’, categorised as the
perpetual subordinate outsider, as ‘non-human’, to the British imaginary. This leads to the
question as to whether James was right to fervently dismiss the ‘ethnic’ coding of knowledge
production specifically in relation to questions of power?

‘To say that this is some sort of ethnic problem is a lot of

nonsense’
James was clearly demarcating that human history, coded as the history of White Western man
within Eurocentric centres of learning, is limited when that history is conflated as a singular
‘truth’ from the position of one dominant ethnic group over ‘others’. The purpose of Black
studies, as envisaged by James in the 1960s, was not only to develop historical accounts that
take seriously the presence of Black people at particular stages in human history, but one that
would also subvert binary knowledge constructs that do away with the falsehood of ‘pure’
ethnic histories altogether. Paul Gilroy in The Black Atlantic approaches this problem of
binary knowing and ethnic particularity by pointing out that even in the most extreme examples
of European settlement where African people were enslaved and where the indigenous people
of the Americas were slaughtered, such brutal extremities did not mean that the cultures and
consciousness of both the coloniser and the colonised were hermetically sealed (Gilroy,
1993). For Gilroy, there is no ethnic absolutism that represents a definitive break in how
Blackness and Whiteness have been assembled in modernity (Gilroy, 1993). The messy and
brutal processes of racialisation, hybridity and syncretism are where Gilroy drops anchor on
the shores of modernity and its colonial encounters with those who Europe ‘conquered,
slaughtered and enslaved’,

The periodisation of the modern and the postmodern is thus of the most profound
importance for the history of blacks in the West and for chronicling the shifting relations
of domination and subordination between Europeans and the rest of the world. It is
essential for our understanding of the category of ‘race’ itself and of the genesis and
development of successive forms of racist ideology.
(Gilroy, 1993, 44)

The Black Atlantic is concerned with questioning the appeal of ethnic absolutism in the
production of Eurocentric and Afrocentric scholarship. In Gilroy’s analysis, Afrocentrism is
seen as falling into the same ethnic absolutist trap of producing tropes that situate Blackness, or
more precisely, Africanness outside of Western modernity. Gilroy rightly questions the terms of
this reclamation by arguing that it is dependent upon patriarchal and masculinist narratives.
Afrocentricity is accused of retreating into the idea of tradition by focusing on the histories of
pre-modern African civilisations as ‘a rhetorical gesture that asserts the legitimacy of a black
political culture locked in a defensive posture against the unjust powers of white supremacy’
(Gilroy, 1993, 188). Gilroy’s critique of Afrocentricity is that in his view it overlooks slavery
and modernity as important sites of knowledge that have the potential to illuminate the
syncretic elements that shape the experience and condition of ‘double consciousness’ for the
diasporic Black Atlantic. In revisiting and reconstructing history that underplays Black
encounters with slavery and modernity, Afrocentricity is believed to be engaged and invested
in ideas of African authenticity and purity unsullied by the aberration and brutalities of slavery
(Gilroy, 1993). Through the explication of the ethnic absolutist entanglements of Afrocentrism
and Eurocentrism, Gilroy’s critique assumes the parity of moral equivalence between both
schools of thought and their reliance on ethnic absolutist ways of knowing. However, while
establishing the moral trajectory of any epistemological category is of critical importance, this
work must exist alongside the fact that there is no parity of power in terms of knowledge
production between Eurocentric systems of thought and systems of knowing that are ‘othered’,
disavowed and marginalised within the Western academe. James’s dismissal of ethnic ways of
knowing and Gilroy’s critique of ethnic absolutism must be understood to take account of the
epistemological absolutism of Eurocentric thought that continues to operate and function as a
single hegemonic ‘truth’.
Epistemological and social borders
The lure of a definitive fracture between what it means to be Black and what it means to be
European remains at the heart of European forms of domination and governance over non-
White non-Western human beings. The dominant European discourse on immigration, for
example, which sits squarely next to expressions of anti-Black and anti-Muslim racisms, works
to reinforce the idea that the ‘non-White other’ remains a recurring threat to the assumed
coherency of European security and identity. Europe as an ethnic absolutist fantasy becomes
heavily invested in bio-ethnic racial discourses of White hegemony that at once it seeks to
uphold and deny through the performance of humanitarianism on one hand while enacting
policies that institute race on the other. The abhorrent racism of David Cameron’s Government
towards people crossing the Mediterranean Sea is one where an ethnic absolutist narrative is
concerned with protecting and securing UK borders by dehumanising and criminalising migrant
peoples. The blatant anti-African racism of the British Foreign Secretary, Phillip Hammond,
was demonstrated during the summer of 2015 when he claimed that millions of ‘marauding’
African migrants were threatening European standards of living and its social structures
(Perraudin, 2015). The dominant discourse on immigration in Britain is shaped by the
hegemony of the British right-wing Government and media where racism is more widely
blamed for regulating ‘European values’ of free speech and thought (Hart, 2014) rather than its
insidious and ubiquitous role in structuring the terms of debate and of governance. David
Cameron can therefore be condemned as ‘irresponsible’ for labelling migrants at the border of
Calais as a ‘swarm’ equating their humanity to the lives of pesky insects, without racism being
named as the problem that underpins this ideological position. Black and Brown proximity to
death can only be normalised within a social context where Black and Brown bodies are
routinely dehumanised and over regulated within racialised power structures that over validate
White lives above all others. Regulating Black bodies and tolerating Black deaths underscores
the rationale that Black deaths can be consumed and explained away as a recurring, if not
necessary, spectacle to guard against the impending and perceived threat of White ‘cultural
mutation’ (Gilroy, 1993, 2). Securing White Western hegemony as an ethnic absolutist fantasy
has created an ugly, terrifying and perverse social order built on structures of knowing that
position European states and European populations (to paraphrase Mignolo, 2011) as ‘the only
victims in town’. In this hegemonic logic of White privilege, being called ‘a racist’ is
perceived to be more damaging than social formations of racism because naming racism
disrupts White racial comfort (DiAngelo, 2011). Such name calling fosters what is believed to
be a harmful culture of ‘White conformity’ to multiculturalism (Hart, 2014). In this reality, the
human disaster of Black and Brown people being abandoned to drown at sea becomes
relegated by what is believed to be the more pressing issue of White individualised victims of
freedom of speech. The whitewashing of freedom of speech permits British tabloid columnists
such as Katie Hopkins to gleefully comment on the migrant crisis that, ‘No, I don’t care. Show
me pictures of coffins, show me bodies floating in water, play violins and show me skinny
people looking sad. I still don’t care’, all in the name of her protected freedom of expression
(Hopkins, 2015). Such a toxic moral compass functions in a dysfunctional political climate
where the British Government decides not to support search and rescue operations for migrants
because the policy of allowing them to drown is believed to be a deterrent (Younge, 2015).
Discourses that further produce false moral distinctions between ‘refugees’ and ‘economic
migrants’ institute an anti-Black racist logic that appeals to populist sentiments where one
group of humanity fleeing war in one region of the world are seen as more deserving of
humanitarian assistance than people fleeing poverty and abuses of their human rights. An
insidious right-wing populist climate in Britain remains largely unmoved by Black deaths.
Instead, African migrants can be explicitly named as ‘marauding’ opportunists intent on
irreparably damaging the imagined cultural fabric of Europe. One way to guard against the
perceived hyperbolic threat of cultural mutation is to engage and re-engage the idea that
Europeaness – coded as White authority, charity, liberalism, democracy, capitalism,
Christianity, rationality and free speech – must be defended at all costs. These racialised
structures of knowledge not only assume and naturalise Eurocentric political hegemony, they
are intimately linked to institutional spaces that have the power to legitimise and produce
Eurocentric epistemologies and systems of knowing. As Sylvia Wynter writes,

The central institutional mechanisms which integrate and regulate our present world
system, I propose here, are the prescriptive categories of our present order of knowledge,
as disseminated in our present global university system and its correlated textbook
industry.
(Wynter, 1994, 55)

Wynter’s indictment is that Eurocentric centres of learning are directly implicated in the
dissemination of ideas into the wider public sphere by ordering the human configuration of
society. Wynter was writing in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots that had taken place after
a Simi Valley jury, with no Black jurors, acquitted four White police officers for the beating of
Rodney King. Her open letter to her colleagues at Stanford University called into question the
purpose of Black studies in the US. For Wynter, the purpose of Black studies was to rewrite
knowledge in service to the dispossessed, to draw our attention to ‘the systematic
condemnation of all the Rodney Kings, and the global poor and jobless who pay the price for
our well-being’ (Wynter, 1994, 70). The letter was written to underscore her point that new
frontiers of knowledge are required to escape the trap of its present organisation (Wynter,
1994). In its present organisation, White hegemonic logics and knowledge structures create
both the epistemological and social conditions that make Black lives both disposable and
dispensable. Wynter reminds us that systems of knowledge produced in the academy are
inseparable from the empirical arrangements of society, a point that is as applicable to the
dispossessed in the US as it to the UK (Wynter in Thomas, 2006).
There is a clear and unmistakable imbalance of power where the prescribed categories of
our present epistemological order are deeply embedded in racialised inheritances.
Superdiversity as an epistemological category is one example of an empirical order that works
to occlude these inheritances by concealing, ‘the “dark side” of cultural difference – as
positioned through relations of power, inequality and exclusion’ (Alexander cited in Back,
2015). In this current frontier of vacuous ‘superdiverse’ rhetoric in Britain, victims of racial
violence are being written out of racism in ways that remove state accountability for racialised
violence. One example of this is evident in the British judicial system where the report
published by the Institute of Race Relations (Athwal and Burnett, 2014) entitled, ‘Investigated
or Ignored’ highlighted that since the publication of the Macpherson Report in 1999 following
the murder of Stephen Lawrence there have been 93 deaths in the UK with a known or
suspected racial element. Where there were convictions for these deaths, the racially
motivated aspects of these cases were often filtered out by the police, the CPS and the
judiciary (Athwal and Burnett, 2014). Concurrently, race was frequently written back into
cases where racialised individuals were alleged perpetrators of crime. The report puts the
erasure of race down to the failure of the criminal justice system to understand the broader
context within which racist attacks are carried out and an unwillingness to recognise the links
between racial motivation and violence (Athwal and Burnett, 2014). The failure to recognise
such links demonstrates the insidious nature of post-racial erasure in that it exists on the
premise that Black and Brown bodies are perpetual perpetrators of crime rather than victims of
racially motivated violence. The post-racial context permits the wilful undoing and dismantling
of the human subjectivity of the 93 victims identified in the Institute of Race Relations (IRR)
report by casting doubt on the racialised nature of the violence inflicted on them. It also seeks
to deflect attention away from the dehumanising effects of racism on the lives of racialised
groups by questioning the very idea that they indeed are human. To be a victim you need to be
human. Once your humanity is gone, you no longer have the right to claim you are the victim of
anything at all.
Discourses on race and racism are about power. They are about who has the power to rule,
to govern and control discourse by force and consensus. Power still remains incredibly male
and incredibly White in Western neoliberal democracies and our institutions of learning. This
power cannot be underestimated (Rodney, 1990). It is the power of White hegemony and White
privilege that enables a virulent and aggressive racism towards migrant and ‘non-white’
groups who are caricatured as victimising the Western European way of life and jeopardising
its fundamental existence. The logic goes that White Western European populations are the true
victims of your unwillingness to accept the imposed conditions of our coloniality. The
subjectivity of the ‘other’ is non-existent against the power to rule, govern and to set the
epistemological terms of the ‘others’ state of being. In this warped sense, the true victims of
racism become those that control the discourse and the terms by which racism is understood.
The enduring rule of racism maintains its power by reinventing and recycling the notion that the
production of Eurocentric cannons of thought, ways of knowing and ways of being are ideal
expressions of what it means to be human. The normative human being within White hegemonic
regimes of knowledge is defined against what is perceived to abnormal so that,

Whatever the group – women, natives, niggers – whatever the category – the Orient,
Africa, the tropics – the ordering principle of the discourse [is] the same: the figuration of
an ontological order of value between the groups who [are] markers of ‘rationality’ and
those who [are] the markers of its Lack-State.
(Wynter, 1984, 42)

Markers of rationality function in ethnic absolutist terms where they become embodied and
expressed pre-eminently through racialised white, Western, masculinised and abled bodies as
social and epistemological markers of humanity. The problem with this as Wynter points out is
that those deemed irrational and chaotic become trapped by the roles and the discourses in
which they have been defined: women become mentally irrational and inferior; whites have
everything while Blacks have nothing; and the colonisers rewrite history in their image to show
they have done everything while the colonised have done nothing (Wynter, 1984).
The absence of Black studies within the British academy is symptomatic of a number of
problems, including the normalisation of Black erasure. I am linking the erasure of Blackness
to what Aime Césaire called the ‘forgetting machine’, a condition of coloniality that
systematically obviates the humanity and civilisation of colonised peoples while concealing
the inherent barbarism of colonialism and imperial histories (Césaire, 1997). This was
ceremonially demonstrated by David Cameron’s visit to Jamaica where the movement for
reparatory justice has gathered international momentum and focused attention on Britain’s
profits from slavery and colonialism. Cameron’s instruction that Jamaica should ‘move on’
from slavery while announcing that Britain had led the way in its abolition was accompanied
by a multibillion pound investment in building a prison in Jamaica for Jamaican prisoners
detained in the UK. Cameron’s message to Jamaica is that Britain’s relationship to the
Caribbean is still forged on punitive imperial violence and domination that profits
economically from the subjugation of Black lives. On top of this, his dismissal and wilful
denial of how Britain profited from slavery imagines that we can simply forget the violent
intimacies of colonial barbarism, racialised violence and dehumanisation that are predicated
on Eurocentric proclamations of freedom, justice and equality. The politics of disavowal as a
vehicle for un-remembering the uncomfortable legacies of racialised barbarism found in
Britain’s colonial and imperial histories marks the borders of historical amnesia where British
historical memory can reconfigure barbarism into benevolence, falsehood and blatant denials.
Indeed, such reconfigurations within Western democratic and epistemological structures
emerge from the systematic dispossession and denial of such freedoms to those erased from the
ideological image of what it means to be human. Contemporary racialised injustices exist in a
world of racial fantasies where acts of racism are reduced to individualised prejudices and
are simply detached from the intrinsic structural instruments intertwined with Britain’s colonial
and imperial inheritance (Hesse, 2002). By ‘forgetting’ and ‘fantasying’ the modern neoliberal
nation state can frequently believe itself to be benevolent and open-minded towards ‘racialised
others’ through the qualities, tolerance and hospitality (Ahmed, 2004). This becomes evident in
debates on multiculturalism, where its perceived failure is seen as a cause of ‘injury’ to the
cohesion of the nation (Ahmed, 2004). However it is this fantasy of closure, this imagined
fracture from past racialised brutalities, where the memory of racial violence as a constituting
factor of neoliberal democracies becomes vulnerable to the politics of forgetting.
Black studies in Britain has an important role to play in undoing and redressing knowledge
power imbalances by dismantling binary structures of knowing that obscure the systematic
racial order of contemporary Britain. Such epistemological fictions reinforce binary and post-
racial orders of knowledge where the intellectual contributions of Black populations in Britain
are assumed to be of little importance to society. There has been a tradition of Black
intellectual thought in Britain that future Black studies programmes can build on to redress
post-racial, epistemological empirical social myths. The hugely influential work of Stuart Hall
and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham helped to shape, shift, define
and decode the terms of our racialised cultural, political, economic and social order. Paul
Warmington (2014) argues in his book Black British Intellectuals and Education:
Multiculturalism’s Hidden History, that Hall had done what British academia has so too often
failed to do which is support and promote the work of Black academics who wished to explore
questions of race and ethnicity (Warmington, 2014). Our current order of knowledge reinforces
the social structures that continue to ignore the intellectual labour of Black peoples in part
because of an insidious culture of racism that devalues Black lives in wider society in general.

Black studies futures

It is necessary for Black studies in Britain to frame the terms of the debates and discourses on
Blackness and Black lives that pay specific attention to how Blackness intersects with systems
of domination. Black feminist literature in Britain has consistently highlighted the central
importance of Black female intellectual histories routed through histories of Black feminism
and intellectual activism (Bryan et al., 1985; Carby, 2000; Mirza, 1997; Sudbury, 1998).
Developing knowledge that explicates the way sexism and gendered forms of oppression
impact Black communities in Britain are under theorised and under researched. There still
remains a paucity of intellectual knowledge production by and on the lives and experiences of
Black women in Britain. This too can be said of the lack of Black LGBTQ perspectives
alongside gaps in knowledge relating to Blackness and childhood, disability and ageing.
In the UK, social class remains a contradictory and precarious space for Black communities
particularly in relation to the purpose of Black intellectual labour. To this end, the question as
to what is the purpose of Black studies becomes a pertinent one particularly within our current
marketised and financialised system of higher education where the value of higher education is
measured against an individual’s employability skills within the market place rather than a
collective, socially transformative endeavour.
James’s essay foreshadowed, to some extent, these tensions by arguing that the struggle for
Black studies was taking place on two fronts. On the one hand there was the tussle for a vision
of Black studies that is aligned with Black working class struggles against racist tyranny and
oppression which also saw the need to challenge dominant narratives of White Western
historical hegemony. While another battle was opening up elsewhere for Black inclusion into
the existing hegemonic intellectual and social order where a much more socially conservative
narrative of social integration was concerned with creating a cadre of elite Black middle-class
professionals striving to get to the ‘top’ of the social ladder. For James, Black studies was not
meant to serve the interests of the latter constituency, as such a struggle would only perpetuate
the social inequalities that kept Black communities impoverished both materially and
intellectually (James, 1969).
The class question as it relates to Blackness has also been raised by Sylvia Wynter when
she asks us to consider the question of how Black intellectuals escape what she calls the
temptations of what it means to occupy the normativity of the middle class (Wynter, 2006). It is
the occupation of this class that supposedly confers your status as human while simultaneously
ensuring the social order of class oppression remains intact (Wynter, 2006). Walter Rodney’s
(1990) notion of the ‘guerrilla intellectual’ straddles the idea that the Black intellectual is both
part of these systems of power while recognising that these systems do not belong to us. As
such the ‘guerrilla intellectual’ must come to terms with this imbalance of power in the context
of academic learning while engaging in intellectual struggle. The struggle for ideas in the
sphere and orbit of where the intellectual finds themselves is part of the political struggle to
expropriate ‘bourgeois knowledge’ as well to find ways of mastering that knowledge (Rodney,
1990). At this early stage of attempting to establish a disciplinary framework for the
institutional development of Black studies in British higher education, it is important that we
attend to these political questions as to how Black studies is going to be framed and for whose
interests it will serve. These questions are too big to answer here. However, as Black studies
develops as an academic discipline in Britain these questions will very difficult to ignore.
The intellectual activism for making the case for Black studies is not simply a question of
creating an inclusive curriculum with more diverse perspectives. Under the current Eurocentric
knowledge structure more inclusivity is not the end game. It is imperative that we continue to
critique the fact that a system of Eurocentric knowledge production is still enchanted by its
own willingness to exclude, obviate and disavow knowledge and intellectual ideas that
emanate from Black peoples. As Gilroy notes, ‘modern racism seeks to deny the agency, the
cognitive capacity and intellectual histories of black people’ (Gilroy, 1993, 6). In this sense,
ethnic absolutism continues to be the dominant organising principle that structures the British
academy as a site that reproduces Western knowledge as epistemological power. It has not yet
come to terms with Black intellectual thought in Britain as a site that critically produces and
validates knowledge. This logic may help to explain and underpin the continuing absence of
Black studies in Britain. For all of the syncretic dimensions of the lived experiences of Black
peoples as well as fields of Black intellectual thought that remain crucial forms of analysis for
our understanding of the African diaspora and the wider workings of global and local
societies, the British academy has remained largely resistant to the scholarship produced by
Black intellectual thinkers to address social problems.
Black studies in Britain is a framework from which the knowledges produced within and
beyond the university can provide a particular lens through which to examine the complexity
and multiplicity of Black experiences. James was quite clear that he was not an advocate of the
idea that Black studies should only be of concern for Black people. Instead, Black studies is an
epistemological world view that centralises the experiences of Black peoples in providing
perspective on the formation of Western civilisation (James, 1969). It further allows us to
confront head on the legacy of racism and the foundations on which it is built. Black studies in
Britain continues to build on the research and theoretical frameworks of scholarship that
address racism as a largely unattended form of social dysfunction that continues to permeate
through all social institutions in British life. Black studies can effect change in the academy in
ways that enable us to study the historical and social dimensions of Empire, coloniality and
imperialism that reveal the ways in which these forces continue to govern the life chances of
the racially profiled, racially regulated and racially oppressed. The purpose of Black studies
in Britain is to fill a glaring void in the curriculum where there is no established disciplinary
home dedicated and committed to studying the Black experience. Blackness in Britain lives in
the wake (Sharpe, 2014) of colonial, empirical and imperial inheritances but it also lives on
the ground in the human complexity, frailty, vulnerability, pleasure and the possibilities of
Blackness.
The lack of critical centres concerned with researching and developing the epistemological
frameworks and critiques needed to delineate the social, economic, cultural and political
conditions that shape and determine Black lives can arguably be linked to the absence of a
significant body of Black professors. However, while any increase in the presence of Black
academics in British universities is overdue, there is no simple correlation between more
Black professors and the development of institutional spaces for Black studies. Furthermore,
there are inherent risks that exist in terms of the push for Black studies in the British academy.
One such risk is that the neoliberal university is in the habit of commodifying and neutralising
the languages and radical potential of any movement that seeks to disrupt the logics and the
status quo of free market fundamentalism. Thus Black studies has the potential to be co-opted
as a tool for neoliberal diversity speak. Sara Ahmed’s research interrogates the politics of
diversity in universities in the UK. She suggests that institutional preferences for the term
‘diversity’ can indicate a lack of commitment to change that allow universities to conceal the
operation of systematic inequalities. Thus the politics of diversity becomes concerned with
‘changing perceptions of whiteness rather than changing the whiteness of organizations…. If
we consider the politics of documenting diversity, we can see that documents create fantasy
images of the organizations they apparently describe’ (Ahmed, 2007, 605–607). The fantasy
image of diversity poses risks not only for a future Black studies but also for Black
intellectuals within the academy. When Black academics refuse to play the diversity game and
attempt to decentre and dismantle Eurocentric systems of knowledge within the classroom it is
no surprise that they are made to feel the force of White institutional power and domination.
Nathaniel Tobias Coleman is one such case. Coleman was employed to develop a Master’s
Degree in critical White studies at University College London but the proposed programme
was rejected (Smith, 2015). His efforts to turn the spotlight on White hegemony on the British
academy is a stark reminder of the coloniality of White institutional and epistemological
power. One key threat to Blackness in the academy is the condition of coloniality where the
underlying and foundational logic of colonialisms constitutes Western academic learning.
British higher education needs to face up to this condition of coloniality where the continuing
and pervasive logic of intellectual power and authority is still so starkly white. The concrete
nature of Whiteness in the academy continues to militate against the notion that Black
intellectual thought is a valuable site for the production of knowledge. Far from being a subtle
or nuanced form of racism, coloniality reveals structural and institutional racism in its crudest
terms. It can be argued that racisms, racist thoughts, racist acts and institutionalised racisms are
hidden or downplayed in our day-to-day collegial interactions and bureaucratic processes.
However, they are unquestionably confirmed and buttressed by the resistance to take Black
studies seriously, and with that, the failure to systematically tackle related issues of racism that
have remained so deeply ingrained in British higher education. The key argument of installing
Black studies comes at yet another critical juncture where neoliberal austerity politics has
impacted Black communities and Black students. Deaths in police custody, the dismantling of
the welfare state, the diminishing function of the public sector, tuition fees, zero-hour contracts,
austerity and the marketisation of university education all have a role to play in both instituting
racial orders while silencing issues of racism. And despite of these real concerns, the
brokering of power in British universities still remains blindingly white. This situation is not
new. In fact it is very old problem.
Embedding Black studies can intervene in the process of dismantling coloniality by helping
us to see the specificity of ‘White studies’ as a particular form of knowledge production.
However, we still have some way to go before Black studies is explicitly recognised,
embedded and valued as a site for the production of knowledge within the inherited colonial
structures of British higher education. The future of Black studies in Britain should be rooted
not in the specificity of an essential ethnicity but in the septicity of the conditions that shape the
experiences of Black humanity. James was right, to do anything else would be nonsense.

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2 Invisible Outsider
Reflections from beyond the ivory tower
Martin Glynn

This chapter explores the conflicts, contradictions and difficulties, faced by a Black male
criminologist researching Black men as part of his PhD study into black male desistance.
Whilst the struggle for validating the ‘insider’ researcher’s position continues to throw up
challenges, it is still apparent that the generation, maintenance, and sustainability of academic
‘subordination’ in relation to ‘urban’, ‘inner city’ or ‘on-road’ research with research
participants; deemed ‘high risk’, ‘hard to access’ and ‘hard to identify is problematic. By using
an auto-ethnographic analysis this personal account confronts the issues of researcher
‘invisibility’ and ‘racialisation’ that provides a ‘counter narrative’ to both legitimise and
represent the real lived experience of a black ‘on-road’ criminologist.
I am now referred to as Doctor Martin Roy Glynn aka ‘Doc Martin’, a label that some White
academics have attempted to ‘define’ on their terms, whilst some Black academics have tried
to confine my new found status by urging me to tone my assertiveness down. There has been no
tenure, no permanent job, and my research interests are still relegated to the side-lines. I am
also being told on a fairly regular basis that, as I am now in my late 50s, I am seen in certain
quarters as too old, as younger academics have more shelf life than me. It is also disheartening
to discover that my decades of frontline experience have counted for very little, in an
increasingly target-driven research culture, which at times privileges compliance over
discovery. This state of affairs nearly succeeded in making me believe that the academy is
open, democratic, and inclusive, and confronted me with an ugly truth.
Namely, my own counter-narrative, like many other scholars who are not white, has been
confined to the academic bargain basement. This academic castration whilst being submerged
in a river of White privilege reminded me of the African American poet Paul Dunbar (1984,
167) who highlighted this ontological dilemma that many of us face within the academy where
he wrote:

we wear the mask that grins and lies;

it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
this debt we pay to human guile;
with torn and bleeding hearts we smile

Dunbar’s verse highlights a deep psychic challenge for those of us who are forced to ‘wear the
mask’ when we feel that our competencies are being constantly undermined by oppressive and
controlling racialised constructs, that places further restrictions on us becoming the authors of
our own scholarly lives. Dunbar’s image of ‘torn and bleeding hearts’ further suggests that in
spite of having to manage the pain and burden of a history of racial oppression, some of us
have to put on a brave face, and don a protective mask in order to survive within
predominantly White institutions such as the academy. I argue for a call to arms that will ensure
our subordinate voices can not only be heard, but more importantly enable us to confidently
speak to power, whilst increasing our collective academic social capital. The need therefore to
build such a platform should not be to the detriment of our research interests, but act as a
tipping point for countering the possibility of Black academic thought being rendered invisible.
Any discourse centring on how Black people construct their lives must not start with the
problems of Black people, but the flaws within society itself, in particular, White society.
However, to date, the visible contribution of contemporary Black scholars like myself within
their respective disciplines remains conspicuously absent in the wider academic landscape.
There is a pressing need, therefore, for a more politicised counter-narrative coming from
Black academics that has precedence in numerous historical intellectual movements such as the
Niagara Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, and Negritude. This counter-narrative must not
only conduct research inquiries on its own terms, but it must also contest and challenge
privileged academic discourses around what matters to Black academics and the wider
community. Important to mention here is the emergence of new voices; such as the Black
Studies Association and Black British Academics combined with aptly titled forums such as
‘dismantling the master’s house’ and ‘why is my curriculum White?’. This would suggest that
things are on the move and are happening to ‘dismantle the master’s house’. However, I also
take the view that at times the energies spent propping up the institutions’ laziness and lack of
attention to social justice within the academia can also be addressed by using the leverage of
our talents in other ways.
Notwithstanding salaries, comfort, and security, there is the small matter of those who have
most need of our services. Plus we do not own and control the means of production and
distribution of our ideas that are bound up in research bids, peer review journals, and a
knowledge transfer environment which is not only colour blind, but excludes anything that
poses a threat to its hegemonic positioning, especially when it comes to resources. I myself
operate and declare myself an insider researcher. Generally, insider researchers are those who
chose to study a group to which they belong, whilst outsider researchers do not belong to the
group under study. My insider positioning views the research process and products as co-
constructions between myself and the participants in the research. I regard the research
participants or respondents as active ‘informants’ to my research; where I attempt to give voice
to the powerless in a dignified and affirming way. As such, adopting this position allows me to
conduct research with rather than on my constituency. However, I have quickly discovered that
by operating this way many of my colleague’s, Black and white, become fearful, retreat,
recede, and generally ignore you. So here I am wondering if my contribution to knowledge will
ever truly be seen, heard, or like many of my predecessors, locate me within the confines of
second-hand bookshop shelves. Responding to Dunbar’s sentiments, I have decided to remove
my mask, reclaim the context of my academic space, and to present my own truth which is now
firmly located within a racial and social justice paradigm.
Invisibility
Young (2011) argues for a more critical criminological imagination that moves beyond the
confines of a research culture that dumbs down curiosity, instead of addressing itself directly
to notions of power and its wider impacts in relation to the understanding and construction of
crime as a whole. Young further argues that more transformative research is required to break
the barriers between the social scientist and their objects, whilst at the same time facilitating
change in the investigated. Not only do I echo Young’s sentiments, but to actively ensure my
contribution to knowledge isn’t rendered invisible, I must both struggle and sacrifice to do so.
The concept of invisibility was put forward by African American novelist Ralph Ellison
(1947, 7) who wrote:

I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor
am I one of your Hollywood movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and
bone, fibre and liquids – and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible;
understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

What Ellison has taught me is that being invisible is not an option and announcing my presence
is a significant part of the struggle that needs to be on-going and relentless. Whilst validating
my ‘insider’ position continues to throw up challenges, the cumulative impact of my academic
‘invisibility’ is made worse, when at times my insights and understandings are marginalised by
those who operate from a so called privileged epistemological vantage point. A range of
pertinent questions begin to reverberate around my head. Who then engages research
participants who come from communities deemed high risk, hard to reach, hard to identify,
hard to access? Or just plain frightening? Who is suitably qualified to access those same
communities and gain access and valuable insights alongside the data? What does a researcher
do when he or she is faced with an emerging situation that is spontaneous and instant, which
requires an improvised approach to the gathering of data? What happens when such encounters
are captured with sensitivity, when ethical consideration for the safety of those involved are
taken into consideration, even when the site where the events took place are chaotic? Who then
decides that these encounters are not valid forms of understanding the social world? And who
should discount the gatherer of such information and data, as merely acting like a journalist?
Some of us are what DuBois (1978) refers to ‘carwash sociologists’ who do not venture into
communities for fear of disrupting our comfort zone, and as Katz (1998) reminds us many
social scientists can graciously transport themselves to worlds they have never been before by
making claims from a safe vantage point of the ivory tower. How then do we recount the
experiences of marginalised populations without any access to their voices? It would be easy
to formulate solutions that are out of sync with the reality of their lives and that would be
ineffective and downright destructive, if we did not find new ways of engaging with the
complexities faced by the disaffected sections of communities.
These accounts clearly make a point that demands to be discussed. Namely, the world at
times is messy, dangerous, and chaotic. It cannot always be measured objectively or somehow
be quantified by assumptions that omit the lived reality of those being investigated, when that
reality is rooted within a racialised context. Hill Collins (2000) sees the internalised
oppression for Black women as a journey that leads towards a need for self-definition. She
further suggests that Black women can gain a richer self-definition if they strive to tell their
own stories as free from the oppressive gaze of White women. There is much to learn from the
stance that Black feminists have taken. Namely, some of us would be more effective if our
efforts delinked the telling of our stories from White oppression and generated a new narrative,
much the same as Black feminists have in many areas of social inquiry. hooks (1991) similarly
argues that when the radical voice speaks about domination, we are speaking to those who
dominate. Both Hill Collins and hooks assertions suggests that it may be a better proposition
for academics like myself to name our own reality and to further consider how we can
institutionalise ways of seeing and being that will enable us to transcend our subordinate status
within the academy. For me, an intersection between critical inquiry and social justice is
required. It is my experience that many researchers like myself undertaking so called risky
research are excluded from research bids, never taken seriously by other academics who feel
that objectivity, longitudinal studies, and abstract concepts take precedence over using
research for an equally noble cause such as social justice and racial equity. A range of new
questions emerge. What happens when you can’t get that grant? When you have no tenure? Or
when the insider perspective where you position yourself is seen as too subjective, militant, or
questions the orthodoxy? What do you when you yourself are marginalised on account of
coming from the same community, social, and cultural backgrounds as your research
participants, in spite of having a PhD, that somehow is supposed to grant you licence to frame
and conduct research?

My journey
Over the years many of my Black colleagues here in the UK have escaped from the confines of
their minority status in favour of the sunnier climes of the US, in search of a bigger salary and
improved status within the established African American academic landscape. Tempting as it
has been, I have not yet succumbed to the possibility of relocation, but the door is still open. A
history of my own racial subordination has made me more vigilant and defiant in the face of
continuing and sustainable pressure coming from forces designed to keep me and my work
down. I’ve grown tired of having to seek permission, gain access, go through intermediaries,
and negotiate with gatekeepers. I’m also worn down by continually providing new evidence,
data, and impact only to have it replaced by bias and limited theories who claim some kind of
authentic right to judge my own views without challenge.
How then does someone like me maintain the balance between challenging the status quo,
whilst at the same time not get sucked into the very psychic machinery that tries to grind your
energy down to nothing? My growing lack of passion combined with my stunted emotional
connection to academia is a reflection of how isolated I became. I then realised that if I am to
seek transformation as a way of transcending my academic subordination, then I must seek
spaces where the interrogation of the obstacles and barriers to my freedom are given voice,
complete with the development of an action plan that will push my counter-narrative into a
strategy for change. This strategy is not about replicating the structure that has kept me down,
but instead it is about creating a more democratic and empowering way for me to function in an
academic environment that still privileges different types of knowledge over each other.
Journeying through my doctorate I spent a lot of time debating the differences between human
and civil rights. In a crass way, it was usually a way we tested each other about the merits of
Martin Luther King versus Malcolm X. Somehow those conversations always felt fruitless as
they felt more like playground politics than something that actually was going to make a
difference to anything. Many times we reached stalemate and carried the argument on in an
endless round of verbal sparring. As I envision a new future beyond the academy I had to
reconcile how I was pushed into a liminal space that nearly imprisoned me and pushed me at
times into a deep mode of procrastination, resulting in self-pity and negative inward reflection.
I had to accept that I was merely operating from a standpoint where my worldview differed
from the dominant discourses that informed so much of so called mainstream academic work. It
didn’t make me less of an academic, but one who had a different journey to walk. My academic
work centres on researching stuff that most don’t take seriously, located within the pervasive
sound bite culture, where nothing really comes out of it, except I can say I tried my best,
answered a hypothesis, or at best I get invited to speak in public. The commitment for
implementing the changes outlined in countless research inquiries becomes destined to become
part of an academic fairy tale. The academic in me wanted to change the structure, yet I knew
operating from that privileged position weakened my own position when working with
disaffected people. This in turn created a strange paradox where I began to question how I
could be located in an academic environment that didn’t perpetuate my oppression. So if the
truth be told I’m still more Malcolm X than Martin Luther King. I want my human rights as an
academic to inform my civil rights, not the other way round. For me the consequences of not
pursuing my passion was more detrimental than accepting the comfort of apathy. I have
observed the helplessness of many people around me who are driven to despair as they lose
hope. I also watch those around me breaking down as they have their hopes and dreams
destroyed by holding on to a past that is painful, whilst never grieving the losses they have
suffered. I have become a fluid human being who is still growing, still curious, still looking
into new ways of being. However, if I am not open to new types of exploration then those who
label me negatively will be the ultimate victors.
Like many Black academics I have had to constantly negotiate a devalued racial status that
requires extensive emotional management. Many White academics operate in a social space
where ‘Whiteness’ is privileged and thus taken for granted; whilst Blackness coming from
Black academics is both discredited and devalued, unless notions of class are located as a
refuge for neoliberals to hide in the shadows of identity politics.

The Black academic’s burden

I am no Uncle Tom, nor am I a revolutionary with a single focus hell bent on destroying White
society. However, I am no longer prepared to defend my racial existence as I have become sick
and tired of being around those energy draining individuals whose insecurities and lack of
identity wander around aimlessly trying to impose their fragile elitist personas onto me, as
subtly as a sledgehammer knocking a wall down. Having refused to surrender my identity to
those individuals who would seek to convince me otherwise for the sake of maintaining their
privileged position over me has not been without conflict or consequences.
I remember vividly when my mannerisms, demeanour, and aesthetic reflected the dominant
culture at the university; there was a sense of ease and acceptance. However, the moment I
presented a persona that was pro-Black, urban, and intelligent, words like radical and militant
cascaded out of their mouths, like a gushing waterfall in the Scottish highlands. And still the
power structure did not herald the call for change inside academia; few saw the private grief
of despair, and more significantly, even fewer considered what it must feel like to languish on
this modern plantation, comprised on masters, overseers, and slaves. The need to stand still for
a moment and realign myself was as a consequence of reaching a place where being defined
according to the distorted gaze of others had become both problematic and intrusive. The
desire to undergo this internal overhaul was also prompted by being put under pressure by
those who wanted to assimilate me into a culture of oppressive Whiteness in academia.
I was at the same time pushed by some community members to relinquish my intelligence by
expecting me to act defiant within an institution that gave me the opportunity to study. Finding
myself in this awkward place I had to seek solace and counsel with those who had gone before
and those whose legacy I had humbly inherited. Inspirational figures such as James Baldwin,
Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Patricia Hill Collins, bell
hooks, Kimberly Crenshaw, Derrick Bell, and numerous other intellectual soldiers have all
come to my aid. I had also meditated on and revisited my artistic and cultural influences to
reground me at this transitional moment in my life. The defiant poetry of Gil-Scott Heron and
the Jazzed lyrics of Ted Joans, combined with the politics of the Last Poets, Watts Prophets and
Mutaburuka, sprinkled with the vocal dexterity of Bobby McFerrin have blended together with
the haunting passions of Miles Davis, and John Coltrane remind me about staying true to ‘who I
am’. In some respects this cultural libation guided me to a place of safety, confidence, and
more importantly balance.
I had become and am now seen as a public intellectual, inasmuch as I occupy two binary
opposed spaces; the community and academia, which are continually suspicious of each other
and at times are incredibly unsafe places to occupy. I was renamed by a group of young
offenders as an ‘on road researcher’, as they recognised I was now borne out of a union
between both academia and the inner city community in which I still reside.

On road research
Returning to the community meant being given permission by the people who occupy the world
of the streets, to have access to those who others cannot, or through fear, will not engage. Much
university research is predicated on well planned, resourced, committee approached,
university backed, theoretically driven, work.
Much of the needs that arise for my research is where an encounter, incident, or moment
happens spontaneously, and in the observation and dialogue with the situation, significant
insights, understandings, and conclusions can be drawn. Situations that cannot normally be
accessed or engaged with in traditional ways, such as a street violence, bumping into ex-
offenders returning to the community, or closed community gatherings where those invited are
allowed in on a ‘need to know’ basis. These encounters can be brief or last for hours. The
reality of on road research is less about an academic report, testing a hypothesis, or presenting
at a conference. It is about making sense out of chaos, reflecting on the events, and finding an
outlet to share the findings. In most cases, it is the community itself that has need of the
information, whereas universities see the outcome as merely anecdotal. As an on road
researcher it is difficult to be focusing, observing, and delving into the lives of others when my
reality at times is interconnected to theirs, regardless of my academic status. Those dominant
conservative research paradigms at times can be oppressive, disempowering, controlling, and
can marginalise an on road researcher, whose Blackness is frequently contested and challenged
by those who merely feel a threat from its assertion.

Whose Black (conscious) ness is it?

Blackness centres on the understanding of the history of Black oppression and subordination,
combined with acquiring the physic tools and ability to transcend its impacts. By using tactics
of colour blindness, operating within a White privileged position, any notion of my Blackness
was at times seen as lacking in objectivity, when conducting research in the Black community.
So how does my expression of my Blackness gain or reduce the possibility of academic
validation, when constantly having to confront Whiteness in both the research environment and
the academy that at times is oppressive and debilitating. Therefore, what is my role as an on
road researcher who is Black, British, and urban?
On one hand I see my role as a researcher that recognises the need to contest and challenge
the way knowledge is produced within racialised constructs and theoretical positioning.
However, I am also held captive by assumptions about being an insider researcher who
happens to be Black. Frequently, Black people I encounter in the research domain demand that
the person researching them has a level of competent and sensitive Blackness that will provide
access to lived testimonies shaped by a history of racial oppression. How then do White
researchers account for their Whiteness or demonstrate their understanding of Blackness when
researching Black communities? Therefore, if I focus purely on the research outcomes, without
understanding that there are by-products that emerge from my interactions, then something
important is being lost. I argue that for many Black academics there is now a great need to
generate and create a stronger sense of personal agency to confront those racialised constructs
that become both barriers and obstacles to elevating ourselves to a position of strength in and
out of the academy. Much the same as feminist researchers, on road researchers want freedom
to operate within a context that validates notions of Blackness, free from constantly having to
defend themselves because of fears of the backlash coming from other White academics or the
academy itself.
Foregrounding the question centring on Blackness and the researcher is valid and important
to those who feel excluded, marginalised, and oppressed. Important here is how my role as a
researcher enables denied or marginalised subjects to talk back, challenge, contest, and
problematise dominant representations and assumptions made about them. I also believe that
intersectionality as a theoretical lens is now an important consideration in the fight for racial
and social justice.
To date there has been little work undertaken to examine how the intersections of race,
class, and gender in academia impacts on our experiences and more specifically how we
function within academia as a whole. It is also increasingly apparent that race as a singular
category of social inequality does not adequately explain the multiple oppressions that Black
academics face. Intersectionality is an understanding of human beings as shaped by the
interaction of different social locations. These interactions occur within a context of connected
systems and structure of power. Through such processes independent forms of privilege and
oppression are created. Intersectionality acknowledges that human beings are shaped by the
interaction of different social locations, which operate through connected systems and
structures of power. Through such systems and structures independent forms of privilege and
oppression are created, maintained, and sustained. For me a more rounded understanding of the
symbiotic relationship between race, class, and gender is required in order to fully understand
our experiences within academia in a wider context. By studying these intersections I believe
we will better be able to understand how implicit biases produces, sustains, and maintains,
multiple oppressions in relation to marginalised groups in academia such as such as Black
academics. I also argue that using intersectionality this way will expose power as relational,
hence drawing attention to subordinate groups in relation to power and privilege in society at
large.

Conclusion
This chapter calls for the acknowledgement that some aspects of research encounters are not
uniform, do not take place in safe environments, and at times struggle with notions of
objectivity. Why should Black researchers working outside the box accept notions of
subordination based on irrelevant and inappropriate methods? Why should we accept this
oppression seemingly without question? A history of racial subordination should clearly make
us more vigilant and defiant in the face of continuing and sustainable pressure coming from
forces designed to keep us down. One explanation is that Black researchers, qualified as we
are, are rendered powerless in an academic system that privileges one group over the other,
where policy responses, legislative changes, and other responses do not provide us with a
sense of equal justice in terms of access to validating both our research and the methods we
employ. For those Black researchers who suffer racial disparities in their work to successfully
operate independently of street level bureaucrats, policy makers, and strategic agencies is
problematic and requires a new approach that provides a shared platform that has power to
determine its own destiny. Central to this proposition is in the way the narrative of Black
researchers is produced and produces change. The dominant narrative that restricts and renders
counter-narratives invisible would suggest that reframing of what constitutes a counter-
narrative. Art, music, theatre, poetry, and dance all give rise to the exploration of subordinated
people’s experiences, but have limited impact on contesting the very power structure that
continues to reign supreme. Without a clear, precise, and focused approach to challenging
power within our society, we will merely replicate a reactionary approach to our oppression,
and not a transformative one.
If Black researchers are to seek transformation as way of transcending their subordination,
then they must seek transformative spaces where the interrogation of the obstacles and barriers
to their freedom is given voice, complete with the development of an action plan designed to
push their counter-narrative into a strategy for meaningful and productive change. The current
state of affairs leaves little room for intellectual growth, when these very definitions create a
powerless and subordinate group who languish in the research abyss hoping something will
turn up. Future research must challenge dominant social and cultural assumptions regarding
Black researcher’s ability to name their own reality. In doing so any future research must
develop counter-discourses through storytelling, narratives, chronicles, and biographies that
draw on our lived experiences in relation to the barriers we face. Until such time the counter-
narrative may be the only avenue open to researchers to give a platform to those voices
rendered invisible by the continuing imposition of White privilege.
As many Black researchers are situated differently in relation to the economic, political, and
social worlds of academic research and funding, maybe we need to search for new sources of
support, forging stronger and more effective unions with other outside the academy. As I
ponder my future I realise that a deeper philosophical question has emerged. Less about being
an academic and more about ‘what kind of academic do I want to be?’. The future may be
uncertain and full of trepidation, but I have given myself permission to pursue my intellectual
freedom. A few words to those who want to join me or to those who want to stop me,

I will no longer be bound by notions of race

I will no longer be held captive or lost without trace
I will no longer be trapped by bein’ told I’m not equal
I will no longer be concerned with reruns or sequels
My freedom ain’t a mystery, nor wrapped up in clues
Or based on your theories, or relies on your views
It emerges from struggle, commitment, and toil
Shaped by my needs, with a passion that’s loyal
My freedom is here, right now.
And I’m taking it
As I will no longer defend my right to be me

Who will run alongside me?

References
DuBois, W. E. B. (1978) On Sociology and the Black Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dunbar, P. (1984) Lyrics of a Lowly Life. New York: Citadel Press.
Ellison, R. (1947) Invisible Man. London: Penguin.
Hill Collins, P. (1986) Hearing From the Outsider Within: the Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought. Social
Problems, 33(6): 14–32.
Hill Collins, P. (2000) Black Feminist Thought. New York: Routledge.
hooks, b. (1991) Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Boston, MA: South End Press.
Katz, J. (1988) Seductions of Crime: Moral and Sensual Attraction of Doing Evil. New York: Perseus Books.
Young, J. (2011) The Criminological Imagination. Cambridge: Polity.
Part II
Revolution, resistance and state violence
3 The case of the two Williams
Black revolutionists in nineteenth-century Britain
Tony Talburt

The central concern of this chapter is to examine the radical political endeavours of two Black
men, William Davidson in 1820 and William Cuffay in 1848, who lived and worked in
London. In particular, it discusses some of the main factors which gave rise to their heightened
level of political radicalism and revolutionary activities. The chapter begins with a brief
overview of the lives and main activities of Davidson and Cuffay before focusing on some of
the main socio-economic and political conditions in nineteenth-century Britain which gave rise
to these strong political desires for radical change. It should be noted from the outset that the
focus is not on Black political resistance movements, but rather, the involvement of these two
men in radical political resistance in Britain.
There are several reasons why a study of this nature is important. The first justification
stems from the fact that both William Davidson and William Cuffay were two of the most high
profile Black men charged during this period with the very serious offence of actually plotting
against the state. In the case of Davidson, he was a member of what Trow described as the
most brazen assassination attempt in British history (Trow, 2012). He, along with four other
men, were charged with ‘conspiring compassing, imagining, inventing, devising and intending
to deprive and depose our Lord and King … exciting insurrection, rebellion and war against
the King … in order to bring and put the King to death …’ (Wilkinson, 1972, 90–92). William
Cuffay, the grandson of a slave, not only became leader of the London Chartists and one of the
members elected to its National Executive, but was also the head of the largest protest
movement the country had ever seen (Hoyles, 2012, 130).
These were not, however, the only two Black men involved in radical political activities in
nineteenth-century Britain. For example, Robert Wedderburn was a Jamaican radical preacher
living in London at the very time of the Cato Street Conspiracy. He was a member of the
radical and outlawed Spencean group (discussed below) and was actually charged and
sentenced by the Lord Chief Justice in 1820 to two years in Dorchester Prison for preaching
‘blasphemous words’ against the Bible and Christianity, the official state religion. Drawing
largely upon his personal experiences on the plantations in Jamaica, Wedderburn sought to
‘incite revolution on the streets of the imperial capital’ (Rice, 2003, 11).
Furthermore, Hoyles (2012) points out that following a large demonstration on 13 March
1848 at the Kennington Common to celebrate the French Revolution, two young Black men in
their twenties, David Anthony Duffy and Benjamin Prophet, were arrested and sentenced to
transportation for 14 years (Hoyles, 2012, 171). He also briefly mentions the names of four
other Black political radicals who were demonstrators during the Gordon Riots of 1780 which
was essentially an anti-government protest. Their names were John Glover, Charlotte
Gardiner, Benjamin Bowsey and MacDonald (Hoyles, 2012, 85–86). It is also clear that some
members of the Black community were involved in political campaigns and public meetings
during this period. For example, we are informed by Shyllon (1977) that leaders in the Black
community took part in public debates on the subject of the slave trade and slavery. He
referred to one example in which there was a debate held on 7 May 1789 which actually
continued the following week (Shyllon, 1977, 82). These examples, therefore, indicate that
some Black people were involved in political protests or resistance against aspects of
Government policy in Britain during the nineteenth century.
The second reason why this study is important arises from the fact that while we have seen a
general increase in the number of studies on Black peoples in Britain over the last 20 to 30
years or so (Adi and Sherwood, 2003; Edwards and Dabydeen, 1991; Fryer, 1984; Okokon,
1998), few of these have tended to focus on the significance of their political activities and
involvement in British society. Although Alan Rice’s (2003) insightful account demonstrates
that Black people throughout the African diaspora were articulating their own radical
narratives, the issue of Black people being active participants in political resistance is not
often emphasised. A good example of this kind of emphasis can be seen in the very powerful
work by Edwards and Dabydeen where they identified the writings or speeches of Black
people in Britain during the period 1760–1890. Individuals such as Equiano, Ignatius Sancho,
Ottobah Cugoano and Mary Prince were singled out for attention. However, the principle focus
of this book was on the recorded or written evidence of the people in general rather than any
radical political perspective. This is surprising, given the fact that a considerable proportion
of the writings or speeches of these individuals centred on their experiences of the trans-
Atlantic slave trade, the exploitation of Africans or the general injustices which they
experienced either in Britain, the Caribbean or Africa. The very nature of these experiences
were, partly at least, political in character.
Susan Okokon’s work provides an excellent overview of the varied experiences of Black
people in London from the late nineteenth century through to the 1990s. At least in her work,
she devotes one chapter to the consideration of the civic and political activities of Black
people who ‘brought democracy to London’ (Okokon, 1998, 63). Although Hakim Adi states
that for hundreds of years before the twentieth century, West African students had been arriving
in Britain, he does not go on to provide any further detail of the activities they might have been
involved in before the twentieth century. Instead he provides a very good discussion of the
political activities of West African students in Britain during the period 1900–1960 (Adi,
1994, 107).
Even where studies examine some of these specific cases pertaining to the Cato Street
Conspiracy or the 1848 demonstrations, for example Stanhope (1962) and Wilkinson (1972),
the role of Black people is not given significant consideration. Trow’s work on the Cato Street
Conspiracy is an excellent case in point in that it addresses the political, social and economic
background factors which gave rise to the conspiracy rather than a major analysis of the role of
Davidson within it (Trow, 2010). The same can be said about the first edition of the earliest
work on the Cato Street Conspiracy, which was originally published in 1820 by Wilkinson.
 This extremely important work provided a very detailed account of the conspiracy, trial and
overview of the main characters. The trial of Arthur Thistle-wood, the leader of the
conspiracy, receives considerably more attention. In fact just about a third of this instructive
book focuses on Thistlewood. For this reason Davidson’s participation in the conspiracy,
though significant, does not receive particular or special emphasis either as one of the plotters
or as a Black man. He is regarded merely one of the accused. As a consequence of this kind of
emphasis in studies pertaining to radical political activism in Britain, the involvement of
individuals such as Davidson specifically, and Black people more generally, have received
very little attention.
A third reason for this study arises partly from the current political climate in Britain
concerning the threat of international as well as national terrorism. This has once again helped
to bring the issue of state security into question which almost mirrors the situation in the
nineteenth century in Britain when the Government was extremely concerned about the
activities of radical thinkers, speakers, writers and activists who, for a number of reasons,
were regarded as enemies of the state and who needed to be removed or silenced so their
infectious revolutionary fervour could not be spread to the rest of the population. Then, more
so than now, the British Government took extraordinary measures to challenge and curtail
political radicalism in Britain which appeared to undermine the very nature and fabric of the
political administration.
In this regard, this chapter also draws some parallels between radicalisation and popular
uprising or underground plots both then and now. One of the striking features of Davidson’s
and Cuffay’s radical political involvement, was that they both resulted in strong government
action and policy responses which seemed to parallel some aspects of the current political
climate in Britain where both the Blair and Cameron Governments introduced more stringent
measures to counteract the growing threat of radicalisation and terrorism. Three immediate
similarities between radicalisation then and now can be seen. First, speaking with reference to
the emergence of a counterculture movement in Britain in the late 1960s, Christiansen cogently
argues that such movements became not only increasingly libertarian, revolutionary and
modelled on the alternative society, but also saw violence as a legitimate form of protest in its
methods of attack against oppressive regimes (Christiansen, 2011, 50–51). In this sense, both
radical movements in the nineteenth century and more recently in Britain have relied upon the
use of extreme violence as the main means to get their message across. A second point of
similarity was the fact that in both the attacks in London on 7 July 2005, and those in the
nineteenth century, these attackers were all home grown and British citizens and so posed a
threat from within, rather in common with the Irish Republican Army (IRA), striking coal
miners or neo-Nazi skin heads (Clarkson, 2011, 132–133). Third, in both cases it was also
interesting to note that Black people were actively involved in these radical movements which
were not primarily driven by issues of racial discrimination but a wider political agenda
pertaining to the more general socio-economic and political disempowerment to which they
could personally identify. In this sense the study of these two Black political activists resonates
most aptly with the current political climate of increasing concerns with radicalisation in
Britain.
The first half of the nineteenth century can be seen as part of a longer period from the 1790s,
which had been characterised by calls for radical reforms. Hollis describes this period as the
era of ‘attacks on privilege’ which became the ‘radical case for parliamentary reform’ (Hollis,
1973). As will become clear in the discussion below, one effect of the rapid industrialisation
in Britain was the emergence of a low paid and exploited urban working class. It was
primarily as a result of their discontent and disillusionment that the roots of radicalisation
developed. In fact much of this working class radicalism was directly concerned with trade
issues and demands for a more democratic constitution and a state machinery less firmly in the
hands of the property owning elites. It was a movement which governments between 1793 and
1820 and again in 1829–1832 and 1838–1848 saw as representing revolutionary threats which
placed established institutions and the social order in jeopardy (Wright, 1991, 21). Dinwiddy
(1992, 173–174) points out for example, that the idea of revolution had become a common
theme in Britain and referred to this as attempts at a ‘discontinuity with the past and drastic
political transition from one political situation to another’.

Portrait of two Black revolutionists

William Davidson was born in 1781 in Kingston, Jamaica. His father was a White attorney-
general and his mother was a local Black woman. William, like many other children of White
fathers in the Caribbean, was eventually sent to Edinburgh where he received his early
education. It had become fairly common place for very wealthy British-based Caribbean
plantation owners to send their children born in the Caribbean to England and Scotland for
their education. Between 1753 and 1776 for example, there were 148 students enrolled at Eton
College in England who were born in the Caribbean (Hamilton, 2005, 209). After failing to
complete his studies, Davidson had a short spell at sea before deciding to go and live in
Birmingham where he ran a cabinet-making business. He later moved to London and married
Sarah Lane whose husband had died and left her with four children. Sarah and William would
later have two children of their own.
It was while he lived in London that two major developments occurred which would help
fuel some of his radical beliefs. The first was his personal tragedy and disappointment he
experienced when he became a Wesleyan Methodist and teacher in a Sunday school. He was
accused of an inappropriate relationship with a female member of the congregation and was
forced to leave. Davidson then became disillusioned with aspects of religion, Christianity and
God. The second development which helped to radicalise him was that he became engrossed
in the reading of radical political literature. He became a member of the Marylebone Union
Reading Society, a radical group which had been formed after the ‘Peterloo Massacre’ in 1819
where 11 people had been killed following an anti-government demonstration. In particular, he
became interested in the radical works of Tom Paine and later joined the Spencean
Philanthropists. Tom Paine (1737–1809) was a radical writer and political activist who
published the book the Rights of Man in 1791 in which he criticised hereditary government,
and argued in favour of the franchise for all men over the age of 21 as well as generally
arguing in favour of equality for all.
Very shortly after this, Davidson met Arthur Thistlewood, one of the leaders of the Spencean
Group. Thomas Spence’s (1750–1814) views were based on the idea of equality and common
ownership of land and profits raised from land to be ploughed back into local communities to
fund the building of schools and libraries (Trow, 2010, 75–78). He pointed out that it was
unfair for all the land and property in general to be held by the upper classes for their own use
at the expense of the whole population. In this sense, a day was appointed ‘when the
inhabitants of each parish could take their log-lost rights into possession’ (Spence, 1973).
Therefore, members of the radical Spencean Movement were convinced that the mass of the
people were being exploited by the ruling elite who were not governing according to the rules
of the historic constitution. This meant the sovereign people had the right to resist oppressive
regimes by ignoring laws emanating from rulers in whose selection they had no say (Wright,
1991, 71). This means, above all, that this broad movement was closely aligned with the cause
of the emerging working class calls for greater reforms within the political system and that
Davidson’s involvement therefore represented, in part at least, a peoples’ revolt. Furthermore,
it was in this sense that this radical movement, in common with those involved in radicalised
terrorist activities in Britain today, often saw themselves as being in a state of war against the
Government and believed it entirely appropriate to use violence as a legitimate means of
furthering their cause.
After Spence’s death in 1814 there were a number of people who held meetings based on his
broad ideas and calls for social change and more equitable distribution of land and wealth.
There were various groups loosely organised and meeting in upper rooms in taverns,
especially in London, where they sought to raise awareness of their main concerns and, in
particular, make demands for social reforms. William Davidson along with Arthur
Thistlewood, the leader of what became known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, planned a
daring plot to overthrow the Government. The group planned to storm Lord Harrowby’s house
at 39 Grosvenor Square, London on the evening of 23 February 1820 where it was thought
members of Parliament would be having a dinner. After killing Castlereagh and Sidmouth, and
the other ministers gathered, they were supposed to proceed to take control of the Bank of
England (Wilkinson, 1972, 150–151). The audacious plot was infiltrated and the conspirators,
including Davidson, were arrested.
William Cuffay was born in 1788 in Chatham, Kent where, according to Fryer, he lived with
his mother and sister Juliana (Fryer, 1984, 238). He trained as a tailor and married three times.
Although initially reluctant to support or get involved in the London tailors’ strike of 1834 for
reduced working hours, Cuffay eventually joined this action. This resulted in him losing his job
and was the main stimulus which helped to fuel his desire to fight for the cause of workers and
argue in favour of universal suffrage. In this sense, he, like Davidson before him, experienced
personal tragedy and disappointment which helped fuel his radicalism. In particular, he
campaigned vigorously for the improvement in the conditions under which working people
laboured in nineteenth-century Britain.
In 1842 he was elected to the five man National Executive of the National Charter
Association. He was one of the principal Chartists involved in organising a national petition to
Parliament arguing for the Six Points of the People’s Charter which had been previously
published in 1838. In 1846 he was one of London’s three delegates to the Birmingham Land
Conference and was also one of the auditors to the National Land Company, which, according
to Fryer, had 600 branches all over the country (Fryer, 1984, 239).
 If Davidson’s concern was for greater political accountability and representation, Cuffay’s
was for the rights of the workers. One of the major publications as well as petitions produced
during this time was the Peoples Charter and National Petition, published in May 1838. It was
primarily the work of William Lovett, of the London Working Men’s Association. There were
six key points. The first of these was a call for universal male suffrage since at the time when
this was being proposed, only 10 per cent of the population could vote. Second, it asked for
there to be no property qualifications which meant people did not have to own large properties
before they could register to stand for a seat in Parliament. Third, they called for annual
Parliament so that no unpopular government could remain in power for too long. Fourth, was a
call for equal Parliamentary constituencies to prevent, in some cases, a handful of people
electing one or two members to stand for Parliamentary elections whereas in other
constituencies with larger populations, hundreds of people were needed to return just one
candidate. The fifth point was for all MPs to receive an annual payment of £500 to prevent
only the very rich from becoming MPs. The sixth point was a call for there to be voting by
secret ballot rather than in the public domain. Although the petition was signed by over three
million people it was rejected by Parliament by 287 votes to 49 (Hoyles, 2013, 127). This led
to months of protests up and down the country resulting in over 1,000 people being arrested.
William Cuffay was one the people responsible for planning a mass meeting on Kennington
Common, London and a procession to accompany the Chartist Petition to the House of
Commons. The Commissioner of Police, however, had declared this mass meeting as an illegal
gathering. It was clear that this was considered by the Government to be a serious political
threat by the fact that in preparations for the imminent attack on 10 April 1848, the Royal
Family had been sent by train to the Isle of Wight. Also, 7,122 military personnel were
mobilised in London, and 4,000 police and an astonishing 85,000 special constables were
made ready (Wilson, 2003, 117). Furthermore, the Foreign Office ground floor windows were
blocked with bound volumes of The Times newspaper, and the Bank of England was protected
with sandbags against the impending attack.
The planned mass meeting and demonstrations never actually took place in full as planned,
remarkably, because the radical ring leader Feargus O’Connor called it off on the very day. In
a letter to Queen Victoria, the Prime Minister Lord Russell, boasted that the Kennington
Common Meeting (of the Chartists) had proved a complete failure and that Feargus O’Connor
(the ring leader), who had been summoned to a meeting with the Commissioner of the Police,
arrived looking ‘pale and frightened’ (Lewis, 2008, 220). Despite the apparent retreat, this
was not unanimously supported by many of the protesters, including William Cuffay (Fryer,
1984, 241). In the weeks and months following this ‘climb-down’ by Feargus O’Connor, it was
Cuffay who was elected as one of those responsible for promoting the issues raised in the
Charter. Weeks later, Cuffay was arrested and charged with levying war against the
Government.
That both men were well informed and educated Black radical political leaders and not
merely marginal or passive participants in these activities is not in doubt. Davidson,
influenced partly by the works of Tom Paine, became an active member of the Spencean
Movement. He was by all accounts very articulate and was certainly the most formally
educated of the Cato Street Conspirators. According to Trow, of the nine men arrested on 23
February 1820, James Ings and James Wilson were butchers, Richard Bradburn and John Shaw
were carpenters; James Gilchrist and John Monument were shoemakers; Charles Cooper and
Richard Tidd were bootmakers, while William Davidson had the highest status of them all, as
he was a cabinet-maker (Trow, 2010, 15). Davidson’s father had sent him to study law at
Glasgow and later mathematics at Aberdeen, both of which he gave up after a while. At his
trial Davidson was not regarded as a mere participant in the conspiracy, but as one of the five
ring leaders responsible for conspiring against the Government.
As for Cuffay, he was extremely articulate and was declared the leader of the Chartist/trade
union movement. He, like Davidson, was not a passive member of the trade union movement
but, according to Fryer, was a ‘Left-Wing militant Chartist from the beginning’. For example,
he was a strong supporter of Feargus O’Connor’s Chartist land scheme which was based on
the idea of providing two acres of good arable land for families who were unemployed in the
urban slum. As mentioned above he was not only one of London’s three delegates to the
Birmingham Land Conference, but was also one of the auditors to the National Land Company
which was reported to have 600 branches all over the country. This demonstrates that both men
were extremely significant radical or revolutionary political figures whose efforts, had they
been successful, would have had considerable influence on British political history.

Political radicalism in nineteenth-century Britain

There were a number of socio-economic and political reasons which contributed to the general
political fervour of many people in Britain generally and the radicalisation of both these men
specifically. First of all, the three or four decades in Britain after the end of the Napoleonic
Wars in 1815 were characterised by a general period of revolutionary zeal and activities
which seemed to culminate in the 1848 mass meetings in London. According to Belchem, by
1848 the use of mass platforms had become the ‘unquestioned tactic of radicals of all shades
and was the quickest way of attracting numbers and of binding sectional interest together’
(Belchem, 1982, 271). In fact, he further suggested that these 1848 demonstrations ‘marked the
end of an era in popular radicalism’ (Belchem, 1982, 270).
The spread of radical political ideas through such mass demonstrations increased in
frequency because of the influence of charismatic leaders. For example, Edward Marcus
Despard, an Irish man, had attempted a coup in 1802 in England which was partly fuelled by
his radical views and calls for political change in Britain (Trow, 2010, 41–54). William
Cobbett was also influential in helping to spread feelings of discontent by making his political
register readily available in the form of the Two Penny Trash. Between October 1816 and
February 1817 it sold up to 60,000 copies a week, while, by comparison, the London Times
and the Observer sold under 7,000 each (Trow, 2010, 58). Cobbett, for example, claimed that
the source of a country’s wealth was derived from the labour of the people and that government
taxation on ordinary working class people should not be too excessive (Cobbett, 1973). The
radical speaker, Henry Hunt, was closely associated with the Peterloo Massacre or riots in St
Peter’s Field Manchester on 16 August 1819 at which he was due to speak.
What becomes clear from the outline above is the fact that both political struggles and
radicalisation movements were largely responses to members of the working class who were
the most oppressed and embittered group in Britain at the time. As Wright correctly points out,
from the middle of the eighteenth century, English society was transformed by a series of
simultaneous revolutions: demographic, transport, agrarian and industrial (Wright, 1991).
Caught up in the middle of these changes was the creation of the urban working class.
Dinwiddy further added that even the National Union of the Working Class consisted of
members who were sympathetic to the revolutionary activities for change occurring in France
and were often easily persuaded to align themselves, emotionally at least, with such
revolutionary pursuits in France (Dinwiddy, 1992, 215).
The British Government’s response to such mass demonstrations and surreptitious meetings
in private lodgings or pubs was swift, decisive and brutal. The Anti Combination Act of 1799
and 1800 was aimed at preventing organised/collective protests and, inadvertently, helped to
drive such radical groups underground. According to Trow, by driving these groups
underground, Pitt’s Government had created ‘a potential monster it would be difficult to
control’ (Trow, 2010, 39).
The Government went even further in 1819 by passing the Six Acts in November 1819.
These were essentially designed to curb the possible revolutionary fervour and activities
which might spring up. These Acts were succinctly summarised by Trow. The Training
Prevention Act prevented the unarmed and silent drilling which would result in a seven-years’
transportation for anyone found guilty. The Seizure of Arms Act gave the authorities the right to
search any premises or persons for illegal weapons. The Misdemeanours Act gave courts the
right to quickly jail people charged with such an offence in order to get any undesirable person
off the streets before they could do any more damage. The Seditious Meetings Act was aimed
at preventing meetings of more than 50 people without the written consent of a magistrate or
sheriff. The Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act was aimed at radical editors who could be
exiled for articles likely to disturb the peace. The Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act was
aimed at taxing or imposing a tax on certain kinds of journals and newspapers which helped to
curb the spread of radical ideas through such media by making them expensive to produce or
purchase (Trow, 2010, 115).
The fact that the Government introduced such measures underscores the scale of the
seriousness with which they saw the rise of radicalism in Britain at the time. Not surprisingly,
some of the criticisms of these Government measures were swift and condemnatory. According
to one source, ‘public speaking was made a criminal offence’ as a result of the earlier passing
of the Six Acts of 1819 (Hansard, 1848, 343). According to a Government official, the
Chartists who gathered at the Kennington Common ‘were an insignificant fraction of the
chartists throughout the country’ and the Government response was hasty and borne out of being
panic stricken (Hansard, 1848, 223). In fact Hoyle claimed that the Six Acts were ‘hurried
through a thoroughly frightened parliament’ (Hoyle, 2004, 13). Furthermore, Britain was so
concerned about its own national safety during and after the French Revolution that its armed
forces grew at a faster rate than those of any other European power. In 1789, for example,
Britain’s army was 40,000 but by 1814 it was 250,000. The Royal Navy was 16,000 in 1789
and 140,000 by 1812 (Colley, 1994, 287).
It should come as no surprise that it was the poor working class, many of whom were part of
the Black population in London, who were caught up in these radical political movements. The
nature of the squalid living and working conditions in and around London during the eighteenth
century has also been very well documented by Hoyles (2013). For example, he points out that
dockyard workers worked long hours from 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and in 1627 they went one
year without being paid. This situation was repeated in 1648 where these workers went nearly
two years without being paid (Hoyles, 2013, 44). Both Davidson and Cuffay found themselves
living in near poverty with very little future prospects and both felt disappointed with the
Government. There were many Black people living in nineteenth-century London, who,
according to Fryer, were very poor with their lives being nothing more than a grim struggle.
‘The daily experience knocked into black people the art of self-defence … to be a radical or a
boxer was merely to apply a lesson transmitted by oral tradition and reinforced on the street
every day of one’s life’ (Fryer, 1984, 228). To add insult to injury, the efforts of both men were
undermined by, and subjected to, very questionable judicial system based primarily on the
evidence of very devious characters who were employed by the Government or at least used
by them as spies.
With regard to the case of William Davidson and the Cato Street Conspiracy, it has been
argued that the whole affair had been planned by one Government spy named George Edwards
and also facilitated in part, at least, by Robert Adams. Wilkinson questioned the validity of the
evidence brought by Adams, who, in his view, was an accomplice to the plot being planned
(Wilkinson, 1972, 205). Furthermore, he pointed out that Adams’ questionable character was
demonstrated by the fact that he had spent time in prison 16–30 January shortly before the Cato
Street Conspiracy (Wilkinson, 1972, 214). More significantly, he was particularly scathing in
his attack against George Edwards who, he claimed, was not only a Government spy, but the
chief architect behind the Cato Street Conspiracy.
In fact, a good deal of Parliamentary time was spent trying to establish whether the
Government spy named George Edwards had in fact breached his privilege. One of the key
questions raised by Alderman Wood in the debate in Parliament centred on whether Edwards
should be charged, like the other conspirators, with the crime of treason (Hansard
Parliamentary Debates, 1820, 55–57). Some members of the House of Commons, like Mr
Brougham, argued that Mr Wood should withdraw his motion largely on the grounds that they
did not believe Edwards was the sole instigator of the Cato Street Conspiracy. It was claimed
by Wood that Edwards was not satisfied with merely giving information, but employed himself
in inciting persons, already guilty, into the commission of other crimes. Even Woods had to
recognise that the Government was forced to rely on the evidence of spies. He, for example,
did not blame the Government for employing Edwards as a spy, or for acting on his
information, or for withholding him as a witness, or for abstaining from prosecuting him
(Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 1820, 61–61). The question was whether George Edwards
gone too far in his manner and method of obtaining evidence.
Although the issue was debated in Parliament, with some members opposing the work of
Edwards and spies in general, others supported the role of spies as a ‘justifiable measure of
state policy’ (Wilkinson, 1972, 432) and so the motion by Alderman Wood was again defeated.
As a measure of last resort, the Grand Jury for the County of Middlesex lodged a bill against
George Edwards for High Treason. One hundred guineas reward was offered for information
leading to his arrest but he was never discovered (Wilkinson, 1972, 434). Had Edwards been
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 LETTER XXXVI

After my last letter, I spent two tedious days in employments that I

now blush to relate;—no less than doing all the dirty work of the
cottage, such as sweeping the room, kindling the fire, cooking the
victuals; and trying, by dint of comb and soap, to make cherubs of
the children. What bewitched me, I cannot conceive, for the
humanity of other heroines is ever clean, elegant, and fit for the
reader. They give silver and tears in abundance, but they never
descend to the bodily charity of working, like wire-drawers, for
withered old women and brats with rosy noses. I can only say, in
vindication of myself, that those who sheltered me were poor and
helpless themselves, and that they deserved some recompense on
my part for their hospitality to me. So you must not condemn me
totally; for I do declare to you, that I would much rather have
relieved them with my purse, and soothed them with my sympathy,
than have fried their herrings and washed their faces.

At the same time, take notice, I was not totally forgetful of my

nobler destiny; for I dedicated part of this period to the composition
of a poem, which I reserve for my memoirs. My biographer can say
that it was suggested by the story of Susan; and even if it should
still appear to be somewhat forced into my book, I would rather
have this the case, than suffer posterity to go without it altogether.
Here it is.

CAROLINE

Beneath a thatch, where gadding woodbine

flower'd,
About the lattice and the porch embower'd,
An aged widow lived, whose calm decline,
Clung on one hope, her lovely Caroline.
Her lovely Caroline, in virtue blest,
As morning snow, was spotless and unprest.
Her tresses unadorn'd a braid controll'd,
Her pastoral russet knew no civic gold.
In either cheek an eddying dimple play'd,
And blushes flitted with a rosy shade.
Her airy step seem'd lighting from the sky,
And joy and frolic sparkled in her eye.
Yet would she weep at sorrows not her own,
And love foredoom'd her heart his panting
throne.
For her the rustics strove a homely grace,
Clipped their redundant locks, and smooth'd
their pace;
Lurk'd near her custom'd path, in trimmest
guise,
And talk'd the simple praises of her eyes.
But fatal hour, when she, by swains unmov'd,
Beheld the master of the vale, and loved.
Long had he tempted her reserve in vain,
Till one luxuriant eve that sunn'd the plain;
On the bent herbage, where a gushing brook,
Blue harebells and the tufted violet shook;
Where hung umbrageous branches overhead,
And the rain'd roses lay in fragments red,
He found the slumbering maid. Prophane he
press'd
Her virgin lip, then first by man carest.
She starts, and like a ruddy cloud bestrewn,
At brake of morning, o'er the paly moon;
Or as on Alpine cliffs, a wounded doe
Sheds all its purple life upon the snow;
So the maid blushes, while her humble eyes
Fear from a knot of primroses to rise;
And mute she sits, affecting to repair
The discomposed meanders of her hair.
Need I his arts unfold? The accomplish'd guile
That glosses poisonous words with gilded smile?
The tear suborned, the tongue complete to
please;
Eyes ecstasied, idolatry of knees?
These and his oaths I pass. Enough to tell,
The virgin listen'd, and believ'd, and fell.
And now from home maternal long decoy'd
She dwells with him midst pleasures unenjoy'd;
Till the sad tidings that her parent dear
To grief had died a victim reach her ear.
Pale with despair, 'At least, at least,' she cries,
'Stretch'd on her ashes, let me close these eyes.
Short shelter need the village now bestow,
Ere by her sacred grave they lay me low.'
Then, without nurture or repose, she hastes
Her journey homeward over rocks and wastes;
Till, as her steps a hill familiar gain,
Bursts on her filling eyes her native plain.
She pants, expands her arms, 'Ah, peaceful
scene!'
Exclaiming: 'Ah, dear valley, lovely green,
Still ye remain the same; your hawthorn still,
All your white cottages, the little mill;
Its osiered brook, that prattles thro' the meads,
The plat where oft I danced to piping reeds.
All, all remain unalter'd. 'Tis but thine
To suffer change, weak, wicked Caroline!'
The setting sun now purples hill and lake,
And lengthen'd shadows shadows overtake.
A parting carol larks and throstles sing,
The swains aside their heated sickles fling.
Now dairies all arrang'd, the nymphs renew
The straggling tress, and tighten'd aprons blue;
And fix some hasty floweret, as they run
In a blithe tumult to the pipe begun.
And now, while dance and frolic shake the vale,
Sudden the panting girl, dishevell'd, pale,
Stands in the midst. All pausing gather round,
And gaze amaz'd. The tabors cease to sound.
'Yes, ye may well,' the faltering suppliant cries,
'Well may ye frown with those repulsive eyes.
Yet pity one not vicious but deceiv'd,
Who vows of marriage, ere she fell, believ'd.
Without a mother, sire, or fostering home,
Save, save me, leave me not forlorn to roam.
Not now the gifts ye once so fondly gave,
Not now the verse and rural wreath I crave;
Not now to lead your festive sports along,
Queen of the dance, and despot of the song;
One shed is all, oh, just one wretched shed,
To lay my weary limbs and aching head.
Then will I bless your bounty, then inure
My frame to toil, and earn a pittance poor.
Then, while ye mix in mirth, will I, forlorn,
Beside my murder'd parent sit and mourn.'
She paus'd, expecting answer. None replied.
'And have ye children, have ye hearts?' she
cried.
'Save me now, mothers, as from future harms
Ye hope to save the babies in your arms!
See, to you, maids, I bend on abject knee;
Youths, even to you, who bent before to me.
O, my companions, by our happy plays,
By dear remembrance of departed days;
By pity's self, your cruel parents move;
By sacred friendship; Oh! by those ye love!
Oft when ye trespassed, I for pardon pray'd;
Oft on myself your little mischiefs laid.
Did I not always sooth the wounded mind?
Was I not called the generous and the kind?
Still silent? What! no word, no look to cheer?
No gentle gesture? What, not even a tear?
Go then, ye pure! to heights of virtue climb;
Let none plead for me, none forgive my crime.
Go—yet the culprit, by her God forgiven,
May plead for you before the throne of heaven!
Ye simple pleasures of my rural hours,
Ye skies all sunshine, and ye paths all flowers;
Home, where no more a soothing friend I see,
Dear happy home, a last farewell to thee!'
Claspt are her hands, her features strewn with
hair,
And her eyes sparkle with a keen despair.
But as she turns, a sudden burst of tears,
And struggles, as of one withheld, she hears.
'Speak!' she conjures, 'ere yet to phrenzy driven,
Tell me who weeps? What angel sent from
heaven?'
'I, I your friend!' exclaims, with panting charms,
A rosy girl, and darts into her arms.
'What! will you leave me? Me, your other heart,
Your favourite Ellen? No, we must not part;
No, never! come, and in our cottage live;
Come, for the cruel village shall forgive.
O, my own darling, come, and unreproved,
Here on this heart rest ever, ever lov'd;
Here on this constant heart!' While thus she
spoke,
Her furious sire the linkt embraces broke.
Borne in his arms, she wept, entreated, rav'd;
Then fainted, as a mute farewell she wav'd.
But now the wretch, with low and wildered
cries,
Round and around revolving vacant eyes:
Slow from the green departs, and pauses now,
And gnaws her tresses and contracts her brow.
Shock'd by the change, the matrons, stern no
more,
Pursue her steps and her return implore:
Soon a poor maniac, innocent of ill,
She wanders unconfined, and drinks the rill,
And plucks the simple cress. A hovel near
Her native vale defends her from the year.
With tender feet to flint and thistle bare,
And faded willows weeping in her hair,
She climbs some rock at morn, and all alone,
Chaunts hasty snatches of harmonious moan.
When moons empearl the leafy locks of bowers,
With liquid grain, and light the glistening
flowers,
She gathers honeysuckle down the dells,
And tangled eglantine, and slumbering bells;
And with moist finger, painted by the leaves,
A coronet of roses interweaves;
Then steals unheard, and gliding thro' the yews,
The odorous offering on her mother strews.
At morn with tender pause, the nymphs admire,
How recent chaplets still the grave attire;
And matrons nightly tell, how fairies seen,
Danc'd roundelays aslant its cowslipped green.
Even when the whiten'd vale is bleak with
snows,
That verdant spot the little Robin knows;
 And sure to find the flakes at dawn remov'd,
Alights and chirps upon its turf belov'd.
Such her employ; till now, one wintry day,
Some shepherds hurrying by the haunted clay,
Find the pale ruin, life for ever flown,
With her cheek pillow'd on its dripping stone.
The turf unfinish'd wreaths of ivy strew,
And her lank locks are dim with misty dew.
Poor Ellen hymns her requiem. Willows pine
Around her grave. Fallen, fallen Caroline!

This morning, having resumed my muslins, I repaired to my castle,

and seated on the stump of a withered oak, began an accurate
survey of its strength, for the purpose of ascertaining whether it
could stand a siege, in case Lady Gwyn should attempt to dispossess
me of it. I must now describe it to you.

It is situated about a quarter of a mile from the road, on a waste

tract of land, where a few decayed trunks of trees are all that remain
of a former forest. The castle itself, which I fear is rather too small
for long corridors and suites of apartments, forms a square, with a
turret at each corner, and with a large gateway, now stopped up
with stones, at the southern side. While I surveyed its roofless walls,
over-topt with briony, grass, and nettles, and admired the gothic
points of the windows, where mantling ivy had supplied the place of
glass, long suffering and murder came to my thoughts.

As I sat planning, from romances, the revival of the feudal customs

and manners in my castle, and of the feudal system among my
tenantry (all so favourable to heroines), I saw a magnificent
barouche, turning from the road into the common, and advancing
towards me. My heart beat high: the carriage approached, stopt;
and who should alight from it, but Higginson and Jerry!
After Higginson, with reverence, and Jerry, with familiarity, had
congratulated me on my good fortune, the latter looked hard at the
castle.

'The people told us that this was Monkton Castle,' said he; 'but
where is the Monkton Castle that your ladyship is to live in?'

'There it is, my friend,' answered I.

'What? there!' cried he.

'Yes, there,' said I.

'What, there, there!'

'Yes, there, there.'

'Oh! murder! murder!'

'How far are we from your ladyship's house?' said the postilion,
advancing with his hat off.

'This castle is my house,' answered I.

'Begging your ladyship's pardon,' said he; 'what I mean, is, how far
are we from where your ladyship lives?'

'I live in this castle,' answered I.

Jerry began making signs to me over the fellow's shoulder, to hold

my tongue.

'What are you grimacing about there, Mr. Sullivan?' said I.

'Nothing at all, Ma'am,' answered he. ''Tis a way I have got; but your
ladyship, you know, is only come down to this castle on a sort of a
country excursion, to see if it wants repairing, you know: you don't
mean to live in it, you know.' And he put his finger on his nose, and
winked at me.
'But I know I do mean to live in it,' cried I, 'and so I request you will
cease your grinning.'

'Oh, murder, murder!' muttered he, swinging round on his heel.

The postilion now stood staring at the venerable edifice, with an

expression of the most insolent ridicule.

'And what are you looking at?' cried Jerry.

'At the sky through the castle window,' said the fellow, reddening,
and shaking with smothered laughter.

'Why then mind your own business,' cried Jerry, 'and that is, to take
the horses from the carriage, and set off with yourself as fast as you
can.'

'Not till I am paid for their journey down,' said the postilion. 'So will
your ladyship have the goodness to pay me?'

'Certainly,' said I. 'Jerry, pay the fellow.'

'Deuce a rap have I,' answered Jerry. 'I laid out my last farthing in
little things for your ladyship.'

'Higginson,' said I, 'shall I trouble you to pay him?'

'It irks me to declare,' answered Higginson, 'that in equipments for

this expedition;—a nice little desk, a nice little comb, a nice little
pocket-glass, a nice little——'

'In short you have no money,' cried I.

'Not a farthing,' answered he.

'Neither have I,' said I; 'so, postilion, you must call another time.'

'Here is a pretty to do!' cried the postilion. 'Damme, this is a shy sort
of a business. Not even the price of a feed of oats! Snuff my eyes, I
must have the money. I must, blow me.'

''Tis I that will blow you,' cried Jerry, 'if you don't unloose your
horses this moment, and pack off.'

The postilion took them from the carriage, in silence; then having
mounted one of them, and ridden a few paces from us, he stopped.

'Now you set of vagabonds and swindlers,' cried he, 'without a roof
over your heads, or a penny in your pockets, to go diddle an honest
man out of his day's labour; wait till master takes you in hand: and if
I don't tell the coachmaker what a blockhead he was to give you his
barouche on tick, may I be particularly horsewhipt! Ladyship! a
rummish sort of a tit for a Ladyship! And that is my Lord, I suppose.
And this is the Marquis. Three pickpockets from Fleet-street, I would
bet a whip to a wisp. Ladyship! Oh, her Ladyship!' and away he
cantered, ladyshipping it, till he was out of hearing.

'That young person deserves a moral lecture,' said Higginson.

'He deserves a confounded drubbing,' cried Jerry. 'But now, 'pon

your conscience, does your ladyship intend to live in this old castle?'

'Upon my honour I do,' replied I.

'And is there no decent house on the estate, that one of your

tenants could lend you?' said he.

'Why you must know,' replied I, 'that though Lady Gwyn, the person
who has withheld my property from me so long, acknowledged my
right to it but a few days since, still, as she has not yet yielded up
the title deeds, in consequence of a quarrel which obliged me to quit
her house, it is improbable that the tenantry would treat me as their
mistress. All I can do, is, to seize this uninhabited castle which lies
on my own estate. But I can tell you, that a heroine of good taste,
and who wishes to rise in her profession, would infinitely prefer the
desolation of a castle to the comforts of a villa.'
'Well, of all the wise freaks——' cried Jerry, standing astride, sticking
his hands in his ribs, and nodding his head, as he looked up at the
castle.

'I tell you what, Mr. Sullivan,' interrupted I, 'if you have the slightest
objection to remaining here, you are at perfect liberty to depart this
moment.'

'And do you think I would leave you?' cried he. 'Oh then, oh then,
'tis I that wouldn't! And the worse your quandary, the more I would
stick by you;—that is Jerry Sullivan. And if it was a gallows itself you
were speculating in, I would assist you all the same. One can find
friends enough when one is in the right, but give me the fellow that
would fight for me right or wrong.'

I shook his honest hand with warmth, and then asked him if he had
performed my commissions.

'Your ladyship shall hear,' said he. 'As soon as I got your letter, I
went with it in my hand, and shewed it at fifty different shops;—
clothiers, and glaziers, and upholsterers, and feather-makers, and
trumpet-makers; but neither old tapestry, nor old painted glass, nor
old flags stained with old blood, nor old lutes, nor old any thing that
you wanted, could I get; and what I could get, I must pay for; and
so what I must pay for, I would not get; and the reason why, I had
no money; and moreover, as sure as ever I shewed them your letter,
so sure they laughed at it.'

'Laughed at it!' cried I.

'All but one,' said Jerry.

'And he?' cried I.

'Was going to knock me down,' answered Jerry. 'So, as I did not

wish to come without bringing something or other to you, and as
you commanded me to get everything old; egad, I have brought
three whole pieces of damaged black cloth out of our own shop, that
I thought might answer for the hangings and curtains; and I bought
a parcel of old funeral feathers and an old pall, from an undertaker;
and I bought an old harp with five strings, that will do any thing but
play; and I stole our own parlour bell; and I borrowed a horn from
the guard of a mail-coach, which I hope will do for a trumpet; and
now here they are all in the barouche, and my bed and trunk; and a
box of Mr. Higginson's.'

'But the barouche?' said I; 'how did you get that?'

'By not shewing your letter,' answered Jerry; 'and besides, the
coach-maker knew me; and I told him it was for my Lady De
Willoughby, as beautiful as an angel—but he did not mind that—and
as rich as a Jew;—but he minded that; and so he gave me the
barouche, and a shake-hands into the bargain.'

'Well, my friend,' said I, 'you did your best; so as soon as I can raise
a sufficient sum, I will furnish my castle in a style of gothic grandeur,
which your modern painters and glaziers have no notion of.
Meantime, if you and Higginson will pull down those stones that
choak the gateway, we will enter the building, and see what can be
done with our present materials.'

They commenced operations with such alacrity, that they soon

cleared away the rubbish, and in we went. Not a sign of a roof on
the whole edifice: the venerable verdure of damp stained the walls,
nettles and thistles clothed the ground, and three of the turrets,
inaccessible to human feet, were to be come at only by an owl or an
angel. However, on examining the fourth, or eastern turret, I found
it in somewhat better condition than the rest. A half-decayed ladder,
leaning against an aperture in the ceiling above, tempted me to
mount, and I got into a room of about eight feet square (the
breadth of the turret), overrun with moss and groundsel, and having
a small window in one of its sides. From the floor, another ladder
reached to another aperture in the ceiling above; and on ascending
it, I found myself at the top of the tower, round which ran a broken
parapet. This tower, therefore, I determined to fit up and inhabit;
and to leave the other three in a state of classical dilapidation, as
receptacles for strange noises, horrid sights, and nocturnal
Condottieri.

I then descended, and made the minstrel and warden (for they have
consented to undertake these offices) draw the barouche within the
gateway, and convey the luggage up to the room that I meant for
my residence.

The next matter that we set about was hanging the chamber with
the black cloth; and this we contrived to do by means of wooden
pegs, which the warden cut with his knife, and drove, with a stone,
through the drapery, into the crevices of the walls. We found two of
the three pieces of black cloth sufficient to cover the sides of the
room; and when the hangings were all arranged, I gazed on their
sombrous and antique effect with the most heartfelt transport. I
then named it the Black Chamber, and gave orders that it should
always be called so.

Our next object was to contrive a bed for me. Jerry, therefore,
procured some branches of trees, and after much labour, and with
no small ingenuity, constructed a bedstead, as crazy as any that ever
creaked under a heroine. We then hung it round with curtains of
black cloth; and Jerry's own bed being placed upon it, we spread the
black pall over that. Never was there a more funereal piece of
furniture; and I saw, with pride, that it rivalled the famous bed in the
Mysteries of Udolpho.

The minstrel all this time appeared stupified with astonishment, but
worked like a horse, puffing and panting, and doing every thing that
he was desired, without uttering a word.

Dinner now became our consideration, and I have just dispatched

the warden (like Peter, in the Romance of the Forest) to procure
provisions. Not a farthing has he to purchase any, since even the
half-crown which Susan gave me is already exhausted.

But the light that enters at my window begins to grow grey, and an
appropriate gloom thickens through the chamber. The minstrel
stands in a corner, muttering poetry; while I write with his pen and
ink on a stool that the warden made for me. My knees are my desk.

Adieu.
 LETTER XXXVII

Just at the close of evening, Jerry came running towards the castle
with a milk-pail on his head.

'See,' cried he, putting it down, 'how nicely I have choused a little
milk-maid! There was she, tripping along as tight as her garter. 'Fly
for your life,' cries I, striding up to her: 'there is the big bull at my
heels that has just killed two children, two sucking pigs, two——
Here! here! let me hold your pail for you!' and I whips it off her
head. So, what does she do, but she runs off without it one way;
and what does I do, but I runs off with it another way. And besides
this, I have got my hat filled with young potatoes, and my pockets
stuffed with ears of wheat; and if we can't eat a hearty dinner off
these dainties, why that our next may be fried fleas and toasted
leather!'

Though I was angry at the means used by Jerry to get the

provisions, yet, as dinner just then had more charms for me than
moral sentiment, instead of instructing him in the lofty doctrines of
the social compact, I bade him pound the grains of wheat between
two flat stones. In the mean time, I sent the minstrel to the cottage
for a light and some fuel; and on his return, made him stop up the
window with grass and fern. He then kindled a fire of wood in the
centre of the Black Chamber; for, as the floor was of stone, it ran no
risk of being burned. This done, I mixed some milk with the bruised
wheat, kneaded a cake, and laid it on the red embers, while Jerry
took charge of roasting the potatoes.

As soon as our romantic repast was ready, I drew my stool to the

fire: my household sat on large stones, and we made a tolerable
meal, they on the potatoes, and I on the cake, which hunger had
really rendered palatable.
The warden lifted the pail to my lips, and I took a draught of the
rural nectar; while the minstrel remarked, that Nestor himself had
not a larger goblet.

I now paid the poor cottagers a visit, and carried the fragments of
our dinner to them.

On my return, we resumed our seats, and hung over the decayed

embers, that cast a gloomy glare upon the bed and the drapery;
while now and then, a flash from the ashes, as they sank, shot a
reddened light on the paleness of the minstrel, and brightened the
broad features of the warden. The wind had risen: there was a good
deal of excellent howling round the turret: we sat silent, and looking
for likenesses in the fire.

'Come, warden,' cried I, 'repair these embers with a fresh splinter,

and let me hear the memoirs of your life.'

The warden consented, the fire was replenished, and he thus began:

'Once upon a time when pigs were swine——'

'I will trouble you for a more respectable beginning,' said I; 'some
striking, genteel little picture, to bespeak attention,—such as, "All
was dark;" or, "It was on a gloomy night in the month of
November."'

'That would be the devil's own lie,' cried Jerry, 'because I was born
in January; and by the same token, I was one of the youngest
children that ever was born, for I saw light five months after my
mother's marriage. Well, being born, up I grew, and the first word I
said was mammy; and my hair was quite yellow at first, though 'tis
so brown now; and I promised to be handsome, but the symptom
soon left me; and I remember I was as proud as Lucifer when I got
trowsers; and——'
'Why now, Jerry, what sort of trash is this?' said I. 'Fie; a warden like
you! I hoped to have heard something of interest and adventure
from you; that your family was respectable, though poor——'

'Respectable!' cried Jerry. 'Why, I am of the O'Sullivans, who were

kings of Ireland, and that is the very reason I have not Mister to my
name, seeing as how I am of the blood royal. Oh, if 'tis the
wonderful your ladyship wants, by the powers, I am at home
thereabouts. Well, I was iddicated in great tenderness and ingenuity,
and when I came of age, I went and seized on O'Sullivan Castle, and
fortified it, and got a crown and sceptre, and reigned in great peace
many years. But as the devil would have it——'

'Jerry,' said I, 'I must insist on hearing no more of these monstrous

untruths.'

'Untruths!' cried he. 'Why you might as well give me the lie at once.
O murder! to think I would tell a falsehood about the matter!'

'Sir,' said I, ''tis a falsehood on the very face of it.'

''Pon my conscience then,' cried he, ''tis as like your own story as
one pea is like another. And sure I did not contradict you (whatever I
might think, and I have my thoughts too, I can tell you,) when you
talked so glib of your great estates; though, to be sure, your
ladyship is as poor as a rat. Howsomever, since you will have it so,
'tis all a falsehood, sure enough; but now you shall hear the real
story; though, for that matter, any body can tell truth, and no thanks
to them.

'Well, then, my father was nothing more than a common labourer,

and just poor enough to be honest, but not poor enough to be a
rogue. Poverty is no great disgrace, provided one comes honestly by
it; for one may get poor as well as rich by knavery. So, being poor,
father used to make me earn odd pennies, when I was a boy; and at
last I got so smart, that he resolved on sending me to sell chickens
at the next town. But as I could only speak Irish at that time, by
reason we lived up the mountains, he sat down and taught me a
little English, in case any gentlefolks should ask me about my
chickens. Now, Jerry, says he, in Irish, if any gentleman speaks to
you, of course it will be to know the price of your chickens; so you
are to say, three shillings, Sir. Then to be sure he will be for lowering
the price, so you are to say stoutly, No less, Sir; and if he shakes his
head, or looks angry, 'tis a sign he won't buy unless you bate a little,
so you are to say, I believe I must take two, Sir.

'Well, I got my lesson pat, and off I set, with my hair cut and my
face washed, and thinking it the greatest day of my life; and I had
not walked a hundred yards from the house, when I met a
gentleman.

'Pray how far is it to the next village?' says he.

'Three shillings, Sir,' says I.

'You are a saucy fellow,' says he.

'No less, Sir,' says I.

'I will give you a box in the face,' says he.

'I believe I must take two, Sir,' says I.

'But, instead of two, egad, I got six, and as many kicks as would
match 'em; and home I ran howling.—Well, that was very well, so
when I told father that I was beaten for nothing:

'I warrant you were not,' says he; 'and if I had done so by my poor
father, he would have broken every bone in my skin,' says he. 'But
he was a better father than I am,' says he.

'How dare you say that your father was better than my father,' says
I; and upon this, father takes me by the ear, and lugs me out of the
house. Just as we got outside, the same gentleman was passing by;
and he stopped, and began to complain of me to my father; and
then the whole matter came out, and both of them laughed very
heartily.

'Well, what do you think? 'Pon my veracity, the gentleman took me

home with him to clean the knives and boots. And then he sent me
to school, where I learned English; and then I began to tend at
table, and at last became a regular servant in the family.

'Well, here I lived several years, and might have lived till now, but
that one night, when mistress had company, while bringing in the
tray of cake and wine, down I came, and broke all the glasses.

'By this and that,' says mistress; (only to be sure, mistress did'nt
swear) 'you are quite drunk,' says she.

'Never tasted a drop all day,' says I; and it was true for me, 'cause I
did not begin till evening.

'Who taught you to tell falsehoods?' says she.

'Troth, you did,' says I; 'for you taught me to tell visitors you were
not at home, when all the time you are peeping down the
bannisters. Fine fashions, indeed! Nobody is ever at home now-a-
days, but a snail,' says I. And I would have said more too, but that
master kicked me out of the house.

'Well, that was very well; and now my misfortunes were all before
me, like a wheelbarrow.

'This happened in the year of the Rebellion; so, being out of service,
I lived at alehouses; and there it was that I met gentlemen with
rusty superfine on their backs, and with the longest words in the
world. They soon persuaded me that old Ireland was going to ruin; I
forget how now, but I know I had the whole story pat at that time;
and the end of it was, that I became an United Irishman.
'Howsomever, though I would have died for my country, it would be
carrying the joke too far to starve for her, and I had now spent all
my wages. So, at last, back I went to my old master, and fell on my
knees, and begged his pardon for my bad conduct when I lived with
him, and prayed of him to take me once more. Well, he did; and it
was only two nights after that we heard a great noise outside, and
master comes running into the kitchen.

'Jerry,' says he, 'here are the rebels breaking into the house; and as
I know you are a faithful fellow, take this sword and pistol, and
stand by me.'

'No, but I will stand before you,' says I. So we mustered our men,
five in all, and posted ourselves on the head of the stairs; when in
burst the rebels into the hall, and we began a parley. 'Why then, is
that Barney Delany?' says I to their captain.

'Why then, is that Jerry Sullivan?' says he to me. 'You are one of us,'
says he, 'so now turn round and shoot your master,' says he.

'I will cut off both my hands first,' says I.

'Take that then,' says he; and he fires a shot, and I another, and to it
we kept, till we beat them all off.

'Well, in a few months afterwards, this same Barney being made

prisoner, I was bound over as witness against him. So some of the
gentlemen with the long words came to me, and told me how wrong
I had acted in fighting for my master, instead of for my country, and
that I must make amends by giving evidence in Barney's favour.

'Well, they puzzled me so, that from then till now I never could make
out whether I was right or wrong in standing by master. But
somehow, I think I was right; for though patriotism (as the
gentlemen call it) is a fine thing, yet, after all, there is nothing like
gratitude. Why, if the devil himself did me a kind office, I believe I
would make shift to do him another, and not act like the clergy, who
spend their whole lives in snubbing at him, and calling him all
manner of names, though they know, that, but for him, there would
not be a clergyman or a fat living in the kingdom.

'Howsomever, I was persuaded to do the genteel thing by Barney

Delany; so, when the day for the trial came, I drank myself pretty
unintelligible; and I swore point blank, before judge and jury, that I
did not know Barney good or bad, and that all I knew of him was
good; and I bothered the lawyers, and they turned me from the
table, and threatened to indite me for perjury. But it was the people
that did praise me, and call it iligant swearing, mighty pretty
evidence; and I was the great man of the day; and they took me to
the fair that was hard by, where we tippled a little more, and then
we sallied forth ripe for fun.

'Well, as we were running through the fair, what should I see but a
man's bald head sticking out of a hole in one of the tents—to cool, I
suppose,—so I just lifted up my cudgel, and just laid it down again;
when, in a moment, out came a whole set of fellows from the tent,
and the man asks which of us had broken his head.

'It was myself,' says I, 'but curse me if I could help it, that skull of
your's looked so inviting.

'Accordingly both parties began a battle, and then others, who had
nothing better to do, came and joined; they did not know why, but
no matter for that. Any one may fight when there is an occasion; but
the beauty of it is, to fight when there is no occasion at all.

'Howsomever, in the midst of it up came the military to spoil sport as

usual; and they dispersed us, and made some of us prisoners, I
among the rest, and we were put into Bridewell. Well, that was very
well. So at night we contrived to break it open, beat the keepers,
and make our escape. Then what to do with myself was the
question. It would go hard with me if I were caught again; so I
skulked about the country several days, till happening to meet some
lads going beyond seas to reap the English harvest, they persuaded
me to buy a reaping-hook, and go with them.

'But to be sure, to be sure, such a hurricane as we had at sea, and

such tumbling and tossing; and then we were driven to the world's
end, or the Land's End, or some end; but I know I thought I was
come to my own end. In short, such wonderful adventures never
were known.'

'What adventures, my friend?' cried I. 'I love to hear wonderful

adventures.'

'Why,' said he, 'we had an adventure every moment, for every
moment we were near going to the bottom.'

'And was that all?' cried I.

'Then,' said he, 'there was such pulling of ropes, and reefing and
rigging; and we went over so many seas and channels; the Irish
Channel, and the British Channel, and the Bristol Channel, and the
Baltic Sea, and the Atlantic Sea, and—— Oh dear, as good as forty
more.'

'Forty more!' cried I. 'And pray what were their names?'

'Bad luck to me if I can remember,' said he.

'Probably you were in the Red Sea,' said I.

'To be sure I was.'

'And in the Black Sea?'

'No doubt of it.'

'And in the White Sea, and the Pacific Ocean?'

'In every mother's soul of them.'

'And pray what kind of seas are they?' asked I.

'Why,' said he, 'the Red Sea is as red as blood, and the Black Sea is
as black as ink, and the White Sea is the colour of new milk, or
nearer butter-milk; and the Pacifi-ifi—What's that word?'

'Pacific,' said I.

'And what is the meaning of Pacific?' said he.

'It means peaceful or calm,' answered I.

'Gad, I thought so,' said he, 'for the devil a wave that same ocean
had on it high or low. 'Pon my conscience, it was as smooth as the
palm of my hand.'

'Take care, Jerry,' said I, laughing; 'I am afraid——'

'Why then,' cried he, 'that I may never——'

'Hush!' said I. 'No swearing.'

'By dad,' cried he, 'you had better tell my story yourself; for you
seem resolved to have it all your own way. May be you won't believe
me neither, when I tell you that I landed?'

'As you are not at sea now,' said I, 'I will believe you.'

'Well then,' said he, 'I suppose you will believe that I made a little
money by reaping, and then trudged to London to try my fortune.'

'I make no doubt of the fact,' said I. 'But pray how did you contrive
to subsist in London at first?'

'By spitting through my teeth,' said Jerry.

'Take care,' cried I. 'This I suspect is another——'

'If you mean lie,' said he, 'I have caught you at last; for 'tis as true
as true can be, and I will tell you all about it. You must know that 'tis
now the fashion for gentlemen to be their own coachmen; and not
only to drive like coachmen, but to talk, walk, dress, drink, swear,
and even spit like coachmen. Well, two days after my arrival in
London, as I was standing in the street, and looking about, I
happened to spit through my teeth, to the envy and admiration of a
gentleman that was just driving his own carriage by me. For he
stopped, and called me to him, and swore I should get half-a-crown
if I would teach him to pickle a wig,—that was the word. So when he
gave me plain English for it, I closed with him, and went to his
house, and taught him to spit so well, that my fame spread through
the town, and all the fashionable bloods came to me for instruction;
till at last I had a good mind to set up a Spitting Academy.

'Well, I had now spit myself into such affluence, that I refused a
coachman's seat with forty pounds a year (for, as I said, even a
curate had more than that); and may be, instead of a seat on the
box, I might at last have risen to a seat in the Parliament (for many
a man has got there by dirtier tricks than mine), but that my
profession, which was of a nature to dry up my mouth, forced me to
frequent porterhouses; where, as the devil would have it, I met
other gentlemen, such as I had met before, and with just the same
set of long words.

'In a short time, all of us agreed that our country was ruined, and
that something must be done. So we made ourselves into a club, for
the purpose of writing ballads about the war, and the taxes, and a
thousand lashes that a soldier got. And we used to set ten or twelve
ballad-singers round a table in our club-room, each with her pint of
beer; and one of our club would teach them the tune with a little kit,
while I was in a cock-loft overhead composing the words. And they
reckoned me the best poet of them all; and they told me that my
writings would descend to posterity; and sometimes the thoughts
came so quick on me, that I was obliged to chalk them down on the
back of the bellows. But whenever I wanted an idea, I read the
Weekly Register; and then between the Register and the liquor, I got
worked up to such a pitch of poetry, that my blood used to run cold
in the morning, at the thoughts of what I would have done at night.

'Well, one evening, the ballad-singers were round the table, sipping
and singing to the little kit, and I had just popt down my head
through the trap-door of the cock-loft, to ask the chairman the rhime
for Reform:

'Confound you,' says he, 'didn't I tell you twenty times 'tis a storm;'
when in bursts the door, and a parcel of peace-officers seize him,
and the whole set, for holding seditious meetings, and publishing
inflammatory songs. Think of that! when I protest to you our only
object was, by causing disunion, and convincing our enemies that
we could not carry on the war, to procure a speedy and honorable
peace.

'Howsomever, I got out of the scrape by being concealed in the cock-

loft; and I remember well it was on that very night I first saw my
wife.'

'Ah,' said I, 'give me the particulars of that event, the first meeting
of lovers is always so interesting!'

'Why,' said he, 'going home sorrowful enough after the ruin of our
club, I resolved to drown care in a noggin; and accordingly turned
into a gin-shop, where I found three fruit-women from Covent
Garden, bound on the same errand.'

'What dram shall we drink?' says they.

'Brandy,' says one.

'Gin,' says another.

'Anniseed-water,' says another. And so they fell to and drank.

'I am happy that I ever came to this City of Lunnun; for my fortune
is made,' says Brandy.

'If my father had lived, I would be brought up to good iddication,'

says Gin.

'If my mother had lived, I would be brought up at a boarding-

school,' says Anniseed-water.

'Why, curse you,' says Gin, 'what was your mother but an old apple-
woman?'

'And curse you,' says Anniseed-water, 'what was your father but a
gallows-bird of a bum-bailiff?'

'And then they fell a fighting and scratching; and Anniseed-water

(the present Mrs. Jerry Sullivan) was getting well cuffed, when I
came to her assistance. So that was our first meeting.'

'You may boast of it,' said I. 'Now then for your courtship.'

'You shall hear,' said he. 'She was so much obliged to me, that she
asked me home to tea, and I went. I found her a buxom widow, and
at that time she was as fine a doorful, as tight a wench over a
washing-tub, as you would wish to see. And there was her daughter,
and a great deal of good company;—the tailor's wife, and the
barber's wife, and the pawnbroker's wife; and none so grand as
they. And they told as many lies over the first dish of tea as a parcel
of porters would over twenty barrels of strong beer. And a young
valet, who I could see was courting the widow, swore that it was as
good to be out of the world as out of the fashion, and then he
whispered to her that she looked killing genteel. But I only pinched
her elbow, and I thought she liked that better.'

'It was very vulgar, however,' observed I. 'The first process is to kiss
the hand.'
'Ogh!' cried Jerry, 'that is a slobbering trick, to be mumbling knuckles
just as a pup niggles at a bone. I am the man to take at once, and
fluster a woman, and reckon her ribs for her. No creeping up, and
up, and up; and then down, and down, and down, for me—Why, as I
hope to be saved, I gave that same widow a thundering kiss on
three days acquaintance.'

'Poor thing!' exclaimed I. 'Well, and what did she say?'

'Say? why she said, "Be quiet now, though I know you can't." So, of
course, I kissed her still more; while she changed colour in a minute
as often as a blackberry in a month. "Ha done, do;" says she, "or I
will call out, only there is nobody at home;"—when, at the moment,
in pops the valet, and catches us lip to lip.

'Now he was a conceited sort of a chap, who used to set himself off
with great airs, shew his white hands—that, I verily believe, he
washed every day of his life;—curse and swear just like a
gentleman, keep a tooth-brush, and make both his heels meet when
he bowed.

'Well, I had nothing upon earth to oppose to all this but a bit of a
quarrel;—that was my strong point;—and sure enough, I gave him
such a beating for catching us, that the widow thought me main
stout, and married me in a week.

'With her money I set up shop; and I did not much mind her being
ten years older than myself, since she was ten times richer. I only
copied my own father there; for he once happened to be divided
between two girls, one of them with a single cow for her portion,
and the other with two cows; so he consulted his landlord which of
them he should marry, and his landlord bade him by all means marry
the girl with the two cows; "for," says he, "there is not a cow
difference between any two women."

'So now that is my history.'

'If I am to collect from it,' said I, 'the character of your countrymen
in your own class of life, I must conclude that they are frank,
generous, and noble; but neglected in their morals and education,
and oppressed by their superiors.'

'Ay, there is the matter,' said Jerry. 'By way of keeping us quiet they
keep us down. Now that is just the way to prevent our keeping
quiet, for it is natural that men who are kept down should try to rise
up.'

'And why do they keep you down?' asked I.

'Because,' answered he, 'we are of one religion, and they of another;
and they say our religion is so bad, that it would make us keep them
down, if they did not keep us down.'

'Then,' said I, 'you ought to be greatly obliged to them for keeping

you down; because that is doing what they condemn, lest you
should do it. Now it is the highest possible test of good-nature, to
become criminal ourselves, in order to keep our friends virtuous.'

'A wise legislator,' said the minstrel, 'ought not to forget the
eighteenth century, in his retrospection to the sixteenth, nor in his
anticipation of the twentieth.'

'I know nothing of anticskippation,' said Jerry, 'but I will tell you a bit
of a story. When I first went to London, and was poor, I used to dine
in a cellar, with other Irishmen, where the knives and forks were
chained to the table, for fear we should steal them; though in my
mind, the surest way to make a rogue, is to let him know that you
think him one. Well, when we began to grow rich, we got a spirit,
and broke the chains, and paid for them; and broke them again, and
paid for them again, and so on. At last the master began to see that
the same spirit which made us break the chains would prevent us
from stealing the knives and forks; so he took off the chains, and
then his table was no disgrace, and we brought more company to it,
and he made his fortune.'

The minstrel and warden now retired to their allotted place of rest—
the barouche. Each was to keep watch in turn at the castle gate, and
to toll the hour on the bell.

The wind still moaned round the turret; and now the fire, ghastly in
decay, but just tinged the projecting folds of the hangings. Dismal
looked the bed as I drew near; and while I lifted the velvet pall to
creep beneath, I shivered, and almost expected to behold the
apparition of a human face, starting from under it. When I lay down,
I kept my eyes quite closed, for fear of seeing something; nor was it
till the third bell had tolled that I fell asleep.

Adieu.
 LETTER XXXVIII

I rose early this morning, and summoned Jerry to the Black

Chamber, for my head was teeming with the most important
projects.

'My friend,' said I, 'though Lady Gwyn has already acknowledged me

as the rightful owner, not alone of this castle, but of the house that
she herself inhabits, yet I cannot apply to my tenantry for rent, or
even raise a sum of money sufficient to purchase my breakfast, till
she surrenders up those deeds and parchments which would give
me a legal claim. Now as I fear I shall find it a hard matter to make
her do so, I have resolved on proposing a compromise, and on
waving all title to the house and demesne that she now occupies,
provided she will consent to put me in formal possession of this
castle, and all the land appertaining to it.

'I have therefore determined to pay her ladyship a visit for this
purpose; but as I was driven from her house with disgrace once
before, I mean to return thither now with such a train of domestics
as shall put it out of her power to offer me insult, or detain my
person.

'Now, Warden, if I could but hire a set of servants, who would

consent to live in my castle and defend it, I would, on my part, give
each of them a lot of ground, and consider them as feudal vassals;
and they could accompany me to Lady Gwyn's. I have therefore to
request that you will instantly set off, and endeavour to procure
them for me, as no time is to be lost.'

'Begging your ladyship's pardon,' said Jerry, 'you are sending me of a

fool's errand: for who but madmen would hire as servants in such a
castle as this? Would you have them build swallows' nests for
themselves under the windows, and live on suction like the snipes?'

'Mr. Sullivan,' said I, 'cast no sarcasms, but go and do as you are

desired.'

'Well, from this moment out, I say nothing,' cried Jerry. 'Nothing at
all, at all: but like the old woman's crow, I will be the devil for
thinking.'

'Another sarcasm?' said I.

'May be 'tis better for me to go at once, before I get into a scrape,'

cried he. 'So now, your ladyship, how many of these same feudal
vessels, as you call 'em; these vessels that are to have no drink——'

'Jerry!——'

'Well, well, give me my directions quick, and there is my hand on my

mouth till I am out of the castle.'

'You may hire about fifteen or twenty of them,' said I. 'But

remember, I will have no dapper footmen, with smirking faces. I
must have a clan such as we read of in the middle ages; fellows with
Norman noses, and all sorts of frowns—men of iron, fit to live in
comets.'

'Better live in comets, than——' But he clapped his hand on his

mouth in time, and then ran down the steps.

During his absence, I paid a visit to the poor cottagers, and after
having sat with them awhile, and promised them assistance before
evening, I returned towards the castle.

On approaching it, I perceived, to my great surprise, Jerry also

advancing at the head of about twenty strange looking men, all
armed with bludgeons.
'Here are the boys!' cried Jerry. 'Here are the true sort. Few Norman
noses, I believe, but all honest hearts; and though they never lived
in comets, egad they lived in Ireland, and that is worth fifty comets.
Look at 'em. Hold up your heads, you dogs. They came over only to
save the hay, and reap the harvest; but when they found their
countryman and a woman in distress, they volunteered their
services; and now here they are, ready for that same Lady Gwyn, or
any lady in the land.'

'Welcome, my friends,' said I; 'and be well assured that I will reward

you munificently.'

'Three cheers!' cried Jerry.

They gave three cheers.

My heart dilated with exultation at beholding this assemblage of

feudal vassals at my command; and in a moment I had arranged my
project. As it was expedient to inspire Lady Gwyn with respect and
awe, I resolved on making the best possible display of my power,
taste, and feudal magnificence. Of course, I meant to visit her in my
barouche; and since I had no horses for it, my plan was to make
some of my domestics draw it in a triumphal manner, while the rest
should follow in procession. To let them escort me in their own
ragged and unclassical dresses was impossible; but I think you will
give me credit for my ingenuity in supplying them with others. I
determined to divide the black cloth into large pieces, which they
should wear as cloaks, and to stick a black feather in each of their
hats, a costume that would give them the pleasing appearance of
Udolphian Condottieri.

We now set about making the cloaks, but as we had not sufficient
cloth remaining, we were obliged to strip the Black Chamber of part
of its hangings.
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