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The untold stories of Black Londoners who escaped slavery in the capital and joined free communities in the East End have been uncovered by researchers who draw comparisons with the Underground Railroad in the US.
Findings from Tower Hamlets archives dating back to the 16th century and “runaway notices” from 18th-century newspapers shed new light on historic Black communities – and grassroots resistance to slavery in the capital.
In areas including Stepney, Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse, hundreds of births, deaths and marriages of Black people were recorded between 1567 and 1802.
Researchers believe the records are a snapshot of larger East End communities where Black people lived alongside white working-class neighbours, and where people who escaped enslavement and indenture could hide. Some had escaped slavers’ ships docked in the city, but many had been living under enslavement in Britain.
The findings have been made by the Communities of Liberation project at the Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, assisted by Prof Simon Newman of the University of Glasgow. Tony T, the research and engagement lead, said evidence pointed towards the British equivalent of the Underground Railroad – the network of safehouses used by the abolitionist Harriet Tubman to rescue enslaved people in the US – with runaway notices showing people were helped to hide after escaping “masters” in London.
One advert from 29 February 1748 read: “RUN away last Thursday Morning from Mr. Gifford’s, in Brunswick-Row, Queen-Square, Great Ormond-Street, an indentur’d Negro Woman Servant, of a yellowish Cast, nam’d Christmas Bennett; she had on a dark-grey Poplin, lin’d with a grey water’d Silk … and suppos’d to be conceal’d somewhere about Whitechapel.
“Whoever harbours her after this Publication shall be severely prosecuted; and a Reward of a Guinea will be given to any Person who will give Information of her, so that she may be had again.”
Another, from 6 June 1743, tells of a woman called Sabinah, who, having escaped the captain of a ship bound for Jamaica, has been “deluded away by some other Black about Whitechapel”.
Parish records reveal the free Black presence grew in all sections of society in London, along with maritime expansion, between the Tudor and Georgian eras. Some Black people owned property, such as Ignatius Sancho, or enjoyed status as valued members of elite households, while others migrated to Britain as workers, soldiers, seamen and musicians.
The Black population expanded as captains, merchants and officials brought enslaved people to Britain with them, with scars and collars marking out their status.
Life was precarious for many. For people who escaped bondage, East End safe havens included the White Raven pub in Whitechapel – where Black patrons formed a frontline against bounty hunters – and the church of St George-in-the-East in Shadwell, which in the mid-18th century committed to baptising people who had escaped enslavement.
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“People were seen as property, wanting to escape was seen as mental illness, and an offence against their owners,” Tony T said. “How did people stay safe? One way was living in communities.
“In the East End of London there are also prominent slave traders … even where Black people are free, they are still living under the shadow of the systems of the slave trade.”
In the 18th-century East End, Black people worked in domestic service, as blacksmiths, ropemakers, carpenters, mariners and shipbuilders, in and out of enslavement, T added, some deploying skills brought from Africa.
But with money to be made from apprehending people who had fled enslavement, an economy of agents and dungeons – sometimes in pubs – developed in London.
In 2018, the University of Glasgow’s Runaway Slaves in 18th-Century Britain project collated more than 800 notices placed by “masters” in a database – a reminder, Newman said, that “slavery was routine and unremarkable in Britain during the first three-quarters of the 18th century”.
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Communities of Liberation is at Tower Hamlets town hall from 1 March until 29 March, before going on tour for a year.
