|
Ignatius Sancho (c. 1729 – 14 December 1780) was a composer, actor, and writer. He is the first known Black Briton to vote in a British election. He gained fame in his time as "the extraordinary Negro", and to 18th-century British abolitionists he became a symbol of the humanity of Africans and immorality of the slave trade. ''The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African'', edited and published two years after his death, is one of the earliest accounts of African slavery written in English by a former slave of Spanish and English families. ==Biography== Ignatius Sancho was born on a slave ship in 1729; his precise birthplace is thus unknown. After his mother died in the Spanish colony of New Granada and his father committed suicide rather than to live as a slave, Sancho was taken to England. From 1731 to 1749, he worked for three maiden sisters in Greenwich. John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu (of the first creation) (1690–1749), impressed by Sancho's intellect, frankness and his amiability, not only encouraged him to read but also lent him books from his personal library at Blackheath. Sancho's informal education made his lack of freedom in Greenwich unbearable, and he ran away to the Montagus in 1749. For two years until her death in 1751, Sancho worked as the butler for Mary Montagu (née Churchill), Duchess of Montagu, where he flourished by immersing himself in music, poetry, reading and writing (Ellis 1996:96) (Walvin in King 1997:96) At her death in 1751 he received an annuity of £30 and a year's salary, which he quickly squandered.〔 During the 1760s Sancho married a West Indian woman, Ann Osborne. He became a devoted husband and father; they had seven children: Frances Joanna (1761–1815), Ann Alice (1763–1805), Elizabeth Bruce (1766–1837), Jonathan William (1768–1770), Lydia (1771–1776), Katherine Margaret (1773–1779) and William Leach Osborne (1775–1810).〔 Around the time of the birth of their third child, Sancho became a valet to the George Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu of the second creation, son-in-law of his earlier patron (Ellis 1996:96).〔 He remained there until 1773. In 1768 Sancho's portrait was painted by Thomas Gainsborough at the same time as the Duchess of Montagu sat for her portrait by the artist.(King 1997:28).〔〔According to King (1997:28-9) There is an inscription by antiquarian William Stevenson on the back of the canvas stating that Gainsborough completed the portrait in one hour and forty minutes on 29 November 1768. Stevenson was the person Sancho corresponded with most frequently. This was the same time as the Duchess had her portrait done. Representations of black subjects typically reflected the artist's ideological view of slavery. Few black people were portrayed with the depth of feeling evoked in this portrait. Gainsborough conveys both the warmth and humour of Sancho's personality and his refined gentlemanly qualities. This is a sharp contrast to contemporary stereotypical images of black people. For this reason Gainsborough's portrait is exceptional. King argued that the Sancho portrait is the most accomplished portrait of a black person in British portraiture of the time (King 1997:30). Bartolozzi's 1781 engraving based on Gainsborough's portrait of Sancho, was used as the frontispiece when Sancho's Letters were published.〕 By the late 1760s Sancho had already become accomplished and was considered by many to be a man of refinement (Ellis 1996:96).〔 In 1766, at the height of the debate about slavery, Sancho wrote to Laurence Sterne encouraging the famous writer to use his pen to lobby for the abolition of the slave trade. In July 1766 Sancho's letter was received by Reverend Laurence Sterne shortly after he had just finished writing a conversation between his fictional characters Corporal Trim and his brother Tom in ''Tristram Shandy'' wherein Tom described the oppression of a black servant in a sausage shop in Lisbon that he had visited. Laurence Sterne's widely publicised 27 July 1766 response to Sancho's letter, became an integral part of 18th-century abolitionist literature. Following the publication of the Sancho-Sterne letters, Sancho became widely known as a man of letters (King 1997:22).〔 In 1774 with help from Montagu, Sancho, suffering from ill health with the gout, opened a green grocery shop offering merchandise such as tobacco, sugar and tea at 19 Charles Street in London's Mayfair, Westminster.〔This is now a heritage site included in tours of Westminster. It houses the Foreign and Commonwealth office and is decorated with reliefs depicting the liberation of Africa from slavery and a portrait of William Wilberforce.〕 As shopkeeper Sancho enjoyed more time to socialise, correspond with his many friends, share his enjoyment of literature and attracted many people to his shop. Sancho wrote and published a ''Theory of Music'' and two plays. As a financially independent male householder living in Westminster, Sancho qualified to vote in the parliamentary elections of 1774 and 1780; he was the first black person of African origin known to have voted in Britain. At this time he also wrote letters and in newspapers, under his own name and under the pseudonym "Africanus". He supported the monarchy and British forces in the American Revolutionary War. Among his acquaintances were celebrated figures like Thomas Gainsborough, the Shakespearean actor David Garrick, violin virtuoso Felice Giardini, the preacher Dr. Dodd (Ellis 1997:29).〔 the renowned sculptor Joseph Nollekens, the novelist Laurence Sterne, Nollekin gave Sancho a plaster cast of his c. 1766 marble bust of Laurence Sterne (National Portrait Gallery, London). Sancho received many prominent visitors at his shop, including Statesman and abolitionist Charles James Fox PC(1749–1806), who successfully steered a resolution through Parliament pledging it to abolish the slave trade. He oversaw a Foreign Slave Trade Bill in spring 1806 that prohibited British subjects from contributing to the trading of slaves with the colonies of Britain's wartime enemies, thus eliminating two-thirds of the slave trade passing through British ports.〔Charles James Fox was Britain's first foreign secretary (1782, 1783, 1806),〕 Ignatius Sancho died from the effects of gout on 14 December 1780. He was the first African to be given an obituary in the British press. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ignatius Sancho」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|