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Black Britons in Jane Austen’s England — 4 Comments

  1. Hi, Maria Grace! This is an interesting topic, which I’ve also been researching lately. I’m not totally convinced the Austen is likely to have personally known any black people, though of course she might have seen them on the streets of London. It seems they tended to be in the lowest classes of society, which I see no evidence that Austen mixed with much. They also served as pages and servants for the highest classes of society, who she also rarely mixed with. And they were mostly in London, with some in Liverpool and Bristol (places Austen never lived); very few in country villages, as far as I’ve been able to find out.
    It’s an interesting topic to speculate about, however.

  2. First and foremost… I want nothing I say to be offensive to anyone. I am just stating what I’ve seen depicted in the Austen movie variations. In the 1986 Northanger Abbey, Raphael Alleyne was cast as the black page boy of the Marchioness. In the 1971 movie of Persuasion… within the first 10-minutes, we have a scene with Anne and Lady Russell in her bedroom. In the background are these elaborate candelabras of black servants holding something [a basket perhaps] on their head. Those statues were again used in the 2007 movie in the house Elliot rented at Bath. The statues stand at the end of the staircase only this time they have removed the dangling crystals. I don’t remember any other occurrences of black actors. I would have to watch them again to see. This was an interesting post and I anticipate there will be other websites reporting on black contributions, influence, and their participation in the history of our nations.

  3. Maria, I appreciate this research about Blacks in Britain during JA’s time. J.W. I appreciate your observations. As an African American born in the South and living in the Northeast (NY), I discovered JA FanFiction in 2015, and I have been hooked ever since. I have enjoyed those writers who have taken the time to include Blacks from the Caribbean or Africa in their JA FanFiction. I recently read a column where some writers were being attacked for including people of color in JA FanFiction because it would cause controversy. Ridiculous I thought! What is more controversial than Mr. Collins drugging, raping, or kidnapping Elizabeth, or beating Elizabeth or Charlotte to a pulp?

    One writer from Austen Underground wrote an excellent time travel piece concerning Elizabeth escaping Mr. Collins and landing in Washington, DC, to the care of a freed African American who had attended Wilberforce College in Ohio. There were readers who criticized some of the writing and her approach. She readily admitted that she did not know any African Americans. I was more than happy to provide historical suggestions about that time period since I have done extensive research on my on ancestry thanks to my families yearly family reunions. On my mother’s side we researched our family’s origin back to 1822, and on my father’s side, we researched our family’s origin back to 1710.

    I applaud writers who try to be inclusive, and I definitely enjoyed Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s encounters with their future descendants as well as their attendance at President Obama’s inauguration. I have read other novels with Blacks, but that one stood out most prominently because it featured time travel and science fiction.

    I also belong to the group, Black Girls Who Love Jane Austen. “Pride and Prejudice” has been adapted to many cultures because it is so universal. I hope to continue reading more inclusive works.

  4. I just reread this post as well as my comments and those of others. After watching Brighton, this article is even more relevant.

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