Black History Month: Black Georgians

This month’s blog post is written by Laura, Museum Attendant.

We are celebrating Black History Month by shining a light on some of the fascinating Black men and women, who helped shape Georgian Britain. If you visit the museum this October, we welcome you to look at the display we have created, featuring Francis Barber and other prominent Black Georgians.

John Ystumllyn

In 1746, John was taken from West Africa by enslavers and brought to North Wales as a boy. He became a servant to the Wynne family, of the Ystumllyn estate. He was baptised and given the name John Ystumllyn. As John grew up, he spent much of his time outside, where he became a highly skilled gardener.

He married a maidservant, Margaret Gruffydd, who worked in Criccieth. The couple had children and John’s employer gave them a cottage, in recognition of Ystumllyn’s long service. In 1791, John died of jaundice. He is buried in the churchyard at Ynyscynhaearn.

Thanks to Zehra Zaidi, the founder of ‘We Too Built Britain’, a yellow rose has been created and named after John. A fitting tribute to one of Britain’s first black professional gardeners.

Saartjie Baartman

Saartjie Baartman was born in South Africa in the late eighteenth century. Both of Baartman’s parents died when she was very young and after she married as an adolescent, she suffered further tragedy when her baby died, and her partner was murdered. She had a condition called Steatopygia, which caused an accumulation of a large amount of fat on her buttocks. When Saartjie was enslaved and taken to Cape Town she encountered a surgeon called William Dunlop who saw an opportunity to make money from her medical condition. Although she couldn’t read, Baartman supposedly signed a contract written by Dunlop, which would see her travel to England and Ireland as a servant and appear in ‘human exhibitions’. In the Georgian era human exhibitions were popular shows where people would pay to look at those they perceived to be ‘different’. Large audiences came to see Baartman on stage in Dunlop’s exhibitions, and some wealthy people paid to privately view her in their homes.

Campaigners against enslavement were appalled by how Baartman was being treated, and they attempted to help her by filing a lawsuit against Dunlop. The signed contract was used as evidence in Dunlop’s defence, and Baartman testified that she had come to England of her own free will, so there was no conviction. We will never know whether she had been intimidated, forced, or coerced into making that testimony and signing that contract, but clearly there is a strong argument to be made that Baartman had been exploited and ill-treated by Dunlop.

A portion of the 1811 print ‘Neptune’s last resource or the fortune hunter foiled’ by Charles Williams. The print shows Saartjie Baartman. © The Trustees of the British Museum
[NOTE: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-12648 ]

When Dunlop died, Baartman was taken to Paris and sold to an animal trainer. She spent the next fifteen months kept in disgusting conditions where she was viewed by people who wanted to look at her because of the Steatopygia and her ethnicity. She died there aged 26, in December 1815.

Baartman’s body was then claimed for ‘scientific investigation’, so even in death her body was disrespected and yet again put on public display, this time in the Musee de I’Homme. Her remains were kept there until 1974. In 2002, her body was finally taken to her homeland and buried respectfully.

Joseph Emidy

Emidy, was born around 1775, in West Africa. As a child, he was enslaved and taken to Brazil and Portugal. He became a skilled violinist and played with the Lisbon Opera. In 1795, Joseph was forced into service aboard a British Navy ship. He was later discharged in Falmouth, Cornwall. He used his musical talent to earn a living, and he also taught the violin.

Emidy married Jenefer Hutchins, in 1802. The couple and their children moved to Truro, Cornwall. Eventually, he became the Leader of the Truro Philharmonic Orchestra, and he was recognised and praised for his musicality during his lifetime. Joseph died in 1835, and his memorial stone is in the churchyard of Kenwyn Church, Truro.