Black Aristocrats of 18th Century England & France

[Music] black aristocrats and celebrities of 18th century England and France popular historic dramas like Bridgerton Hamilton and sandition sometimes receive a criticism that their racially diverse casts are historically inaccurate but in fact there have been people of color in Britain and France since the Roman times by the 18th century the transatlantic slave trade brought more people of African descent to Europe than ever before in 1768 there were about 15 000 black people living in London many were brought there as enslaved servants and sailors but some had the right mixture of talent and luck to rise to the upper echelons of society becoming celebrities and even Aristocrats today we'll meet seven prominent people of African and mixed Heritage who lived in Britain or France in the 18th century among them a king's secret daughter an icon of both Sport and music two authors who spoke out against slavery and a lady of wealth and refinement who would have fit perfectly into the world of Bridgerton he here are their stories Louise Mary teres was delivered to The Abbey of moray in 1665 when she was a young child where she came from was the biggest mystery of her life many at the Palace of Versailles whispered that the mysterious black nun of moray was really the daughter of Queen Maria Theresa the wife of Louis XIV of France the King was far more interested in his Mistresses than his wife check out my videos all about it once the queen produced an heir the king only occasionally visited her bed chamber left to her own devices the queen surrounded herself with friends and confidants including as was fashionable at the time an African servant with dwarfism named Naboo In 1664 Maria Theresa gave birth to her third child a baby girl who was tragically stillborn an eyewitness noted the infant appeared a little dark Arc This Is Not Unusual for babies who have been deprived of oxygen in the womb but for years after the word adversi was that the princess had not died but had been secreted away because she was black scientifically naive gossip mongers noted the Queen's love of hot chocolate and theorized that this was why she had given birth to a dark-skinned child but the prevailing assumption was that the queen had an affair with her attendant Naboo it was expected for a king to commit adultery but for a queen it was Unthinkable it has since been alleged that Naboo was banished from the palace or even that he was imprisoned and was the mysterious Man in the Iron Mask but in fact he continued to work at Louie's Court long after the Queen's death in 1683. once Maria Theresa died rumors about her long-lost child really flared up many courtiers went to visit the mysterious black nun of moray to see if they could identify the Queen's traits in her and solve the Enigma Louise had been delivered to the Murray Monastery by a trusted royal advisor shortly after the Queen's tragic delivery In 1664 the only problem was that she had been a child of about five not a newborn baby historians now think it more likely that the nun was actually King Louie's illegitimate daughter with an unknown woman of African descent there are several Clues to this Theory one she was named Louise after Louis and the king would never have allowed the child of his wife's lover to be named after him two she was granted a generous allowance of 300 pounds a year from the king's treasury three court artist Pierre kuber was sent to make a portrait of her titled the religious black princess which was included with other now missing documents in a folio titled the Moorish daughter of Louis XIV 4. courtiers who met Louise including Voltaire remarked on her strong resemblance to the king not the queen Louise herself was sure of her royal parentage when the delfonk came to meet her she greeted him as my brother Madame de montanon King Louie's secret second wife visited her often and attended the ceremony during which she took her holy vows Louise told montanon the trouble which a lady of your station takes to purposely come here and tell me that I am not the daughter of a king persuades me that I am Louise was no fool she lived out her life at the convent and died at the age of 68. the mysterious black nun inspired the opening of a less than some metal Chocolate Factory in the town of moray Ignatius Sancho was born aboard a slave ship crossing the Atlantic his mother died shortly after they arrived in the Spanish colony of new Grenada modern day Colombia his father took his own life rather than live enslaved when Ignatius was two his owner took him to Greenwich England and gave him to three unmarried sisters they treated him like a pet and named him Sancho after the character in Don Quixote he was their servant until the age of 20. John Duke of Montague was a frequent guest of the sisters and he was impressed with ignatius's intellect frankness and amiability he taught Ignatius to read and lent him books from his own Library education enlightened him to the Injustice of slavery and he ran away to Montague house there he worked as a butler to Lady Montague and immersed himself in music poetry reading and writing Ignatius composed at least 62 pieces of music wrote two plays and published a book on music theory artist Alan Ramsay's portrait of an African is believed to have been painted of Ignatius during this period lady Montague died and left Ignatius a generous inheritance in 1758 he married Anne Osborne a West Indian woman he was devoted to her and their seven children he took a job as a valet to George Montague the son-in-law and heir of his previous Patron artist Thomas Gainsborough painted a portrait of Ignatius at the same time The Duchess sat for a portrait Ignatius became well known as a man of accomplishment and refinement he was an outspoken abolitionist his moving correspondence with novelist Lawrence Stern became an integral part of 18th century anti-slavery literature and brought him notoriety at 45 he bought a house and grocery store in the upmarket London neighborhood of Mayfair his shop sold tobacco sugar and tea Goods which were produced by enslaved people in the West Indies as a landowner Ignatius had the right to vote at Westminster and was the first known person of African descent to cast a ballot in a British general election he was a tall big man and was noted for his warmth and charm he was friends with many a great thinkers artists and politicians of the day including James Fox who oversaw a bill in 1806 to prohibit British subjects from participating in the slave trade Ignatius died of gout at the age of 50 and was the first person of African descent to have an obituary published in British newspapers Act Dr Patterson Joseph has written a play and novel about Ignatius Sancho's life Joseph bologna chavalier de sanjorge was born in 1745 on the Caribbean island of Guadalupe his father was a French Plantation owner who raped his wife's 16 year old enslaved maid Joseph's mother nanon was of senegalese origin when Joseph was seven his father took him to France back in 1315 King Louis X decreed that any enslaved person setting foot on French soil was free of course this did not apply to France's overseas colonies where slavery built many fortunes back in the motherland now free Joseph enrolled in boarding school two years later his father returned to France with nanon who was reunited with her son at 13 Joseph was enrolled in fencing school he was immensely talented and defeated far more experienced Fighters he was entered into a highly publicized duel against the famed fencing master of rule supporters of slavery bet heavily on the master while abolitionists bet on Joseph Joseph won the match his prowess earned him a place as a personal bodyguard to King Louis XV and the title Chevalier the French equivalent of a knight his father died and left he and his mother comfortably provided for next he became famous for a second Talent music he was a gifted violinist his solos enraptured especially the feminine members of the audience he composed numerous string quartets sonatas and Symphonies as well as plays and ballets Beethoven held him in high regard he became conductor of the concert olympique Queen Marie Antoinette was a fan and would often sneak into performances unannounced Joseph was the 18th century equivalent of a rock star he was a hero to Young Sportsmen and musicians and attended balls and salons with a fashionable set he loved and was loved by many ladies but his mixed Heritage meant that he could not marry a woman of his own rank the love of his life was Maria Josephine du montalone bear who was married to a much older General Maurizio safin gave birth to Joseph's child but her husband took her and the baby away and the child died Joseph mourned deeply at the loss of his love and the son he never met it was likely the general who sent a band of six men to attack him in the night while he was leaving a party they beat the Chevalier and a friend with sticks but they were able to fend off the assailants Joseph rejected the advances of famed dancer Marie Madeleine guimar but she sought Revenge when he was proposed as the new director of the Paris Opera Marie Madeline and two of her fellow Divas petitioned the queen writing that their honor could never allow them to submit to the orders of mulatto his operatic Ambitions Came Crashing Down the Chevalier instead took a position as the Director of the Duke to Orleans private theater there he lodged and worked with a Young Mozart at 45 Joseph wholeheartedly embraced the French Revolution which advertised equal rights to all revolutionary leaders sent him to London where he performed fencing exhibitions for King George III and the prince of Wales he fought a match with the famed Chevalier Dion whom you can learn more about in my transgender Nobles video but Joseph also had a secret mission to consolidate abolitionist support in London while walking to his lodgings he was attacked by assassins on a mission to stop his anti-slavery activities but the famed fencer fought them off Joseph returned to France with a bad taste for politics he decided to fight for his ideals directly and signed up with the Revolutionary Army he was appointed a colonel of the first all-black regiment in Europe which became known as the legion sanjorge but Joseph was caught up in the infighting among revolutionary leaders he was stripped of command and imprisoned for 18 months his loyal men called for his release but he was not allowed to return to the Army despondent he traveled to the Caribbean island of Sandu monk to fight in support of the enslaved people in what became known as the Haitian revolution after two years there the Chevalier returned to Paris he died of gangrene at the age of 53 in 1799. he did not live to see it the full abolition of slavery in French colonies in 1848. Joseph bologna is the subject of the 2023 film Chevalier olada equiano was born in the Kingdom of Benin in modern-day Nigeria around 1745. he recalled in his Memoir that his father was a village Chief Who Sold prisoners of war and criminals to European colonists when he was 11 he and his sister were left home alone they were kidnapped separated and sold to slave Traders he tried to escape but was thwarted he was marched to the coast and put aboard a ship Bound for Barbados then on to the colony of Virginia there he was purchased by a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and renamed Gustav Vasa after the 16th century King of Sweden olada refused the new name and was beaten until he accepted it the lieutenant took him to Europe to act as his valet while he fought in the seven years war with France during several battles young olada hauled gunpowder to the gun decks the lieutenant sent him to England to attend school but when he was 18 the lieutenant sold him again and he was taken back to the Caribbean because he was literate olada worked as a secretary and assistant to the merchant who owned him on his trade routes up and down the East Coast the merchant was a Quaker and allowed him to read the Bible and engage in profitable trading of his own he promised that for his purchase price 40 pounds about ten thousand dollars today he could purchase his freedom he did so at the age of 21. the merchant encouraged him to stay on as a business partner but after he was nearly kidnapped and sold back into slavery in Georgia he decided America was too dangerous he journeyed to England and continued to work aboard ships he served as a backhand on an expedition to the North Pole next he moved to Central America and managed enslaved people on a sugar Plantation he returned to England at the age of 37. married Susanna Cullen and they had two daughters he gave lectures about his experiences of slavery and influenced people and politicians to fight for its end all this time he had been using the name Gustav FASA but in 1789 he published his autobiography the interesting Narrative of the life of olada equiano the African the Memoir was a best seller in the UK Russia Germany Holland and the United States it was one of the first widely read books written by a person of African descent it fueled the growing anti-slavery movement and was a financial success making olada a wealthy man he was a community leader among the black citizens of London and work to improve opportunities for them during the American war for independence the British army recruited enslaved people by offering them Freedom passes to London and pensions when the war was lost the Redcoats came through with the freedom and passage but not the pensions thousands were stranded in London unable to find work and with no social safety net and the government was eager to get rid of them a scheme was hatched to ship them to a newly established Colony on the west coast of Africa Sierra Leone olada was recruited to manage supplies for the Expedition but he realized that the colony's climate was dangerous and he spoke against the plan he was dragged in the paper as a whistleblower but he had been right and the Expedition turned tragic of the 4 400 colonists sent to live there only 60 were alive five years later olada's wife Susanna died at 34. olada himself died a year later in 1797 age 52 his obituary was published in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic Dido Elizabeth Bell was born in 1761 in the British West Indies her mother Maria Bell was an enslaved African woman her father was naval officer Sir John Lindsey a member of Clan Lindsay and prominent British aristocratic family when Jon returned to England he took four-year-old Dido with him he left her with his uncle William Murray Earl of Mansfield and his wife Elizabeth the Murrays who had no children of their own raised Dido and her orphan cousin Lady Elizabeth at their palatial Manor Kenwood house outside of London the cousins were educated together a remarkable double portrait of them hints at their close Bond Dido was treated like the rest of the family given a fine bedroom and fashionable clothes guests at the Manor noted ten-year-old Dido's excellent recitation of poetry once when Americans came for dinner she did not dine with the gas but appeared later to take coffee with the ladies it is not clear if this was so as not to offend the gas or so that they would not have the opportunity to be rude to Dido in her late teens Dido took over management of the estate's dairy and poultry yards a typical occupation for Noble ladies she also acted as a secretary to Lord Mansfield a job which would have usually been done by a man Lord Mansfield was Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales in 1772 he ruled in a landmark case of an enslaved man named John Somerset whose owner wanted to send him back to the West Indies for sale Lord Mansfield ruled in somerset's favor thus setting him free surely his experience in raising Dido had some influence on his decision his judgment was taken by abolitionists to mean slavery was abolished in England though it was not actually abolished throughout the British Empire until 1833 even then former slave owners were compensated by British taxpayers for the loss of their human property when Dida was 27 her father who had since become an admiral died and bequeathed her 500 pounds five years later Lord Mansfield died in his will he unequivocally confirmed Dido's freedom and bequeathed her another 500 pounds plus a 100 pound annuity now a woman of independent means Dido married Frenchman Jean David the couple bought a house in London and had three sons Dido died at the age of 43 of an unknown cause she is the subject of the 2013 film Belle Jean amalkar was born in 1781 in Senegal on the west coast of Africa at the time a French Colony he was enslaved and at the age of six was taken to France and presented to Queen Marie Antoinette as a gift the queen had recently lost her youngest child Sophie at just 11 months to ease her heartache she had taken to adopting orphan children she took in seven including Jean now that he was on French soil he was free and the queen had him baptized he and three of her other adopted children did not live at the palace with the Queen's biological children instead she paid for them to attend boarding school Jean remained there for five years when the French Revolution broke out the queen kept up tuition payments for as long as she could but eventually revolutionaries arrested the royal family and stopped the funds and eleven-year-old Sean was expelled one of his teachers took him in and continued his education Jean had a talent for drawing and at 15 was accepted to the Leon KO Academy in Paris with a scholarship but he died of illness in a hospital in Paris later that same year Thomas Alexandra Dumas was born in 1762 on the French Colonial island of San ju modern day Haiti his father Alexandra ontar was the eldest son of the Marquee Doula pateri he arrived in the Caribbean as part of the French army he soon left his post to work on plantations there he purchased an enslaved woman named Marie cassette dumal and forced her into a sexual relationship she gave birth to Tomah Alexandra and two or three daughters after antol's parents died he returned to France to claim the family title and Chateau he took his son with him but sold his daughters and their mother in order to get his son off the island Anton had to sell him to a captain and then buy him back when they arrived in France Tomo Alexandra attended an aristocratic School in Paris he learned fencing from the Chevalier de San Jorge his father was flush after the sale of their ancestral home and Tomo Alexandra lived the life of a Gentleman of Leisure even though he was his father's eldest son because he was illegitimate and mixed race he did not stand to inherit the family title when his father remarried his allowance was cut and he joined the army most young men of noble birth were commissioned as officers batoma Alexandra's mixed race made this impossible he instead enlisted as a private his father appalled that the noble name of dula patari would be dragged through the lowest ranks of the army insisted his son used his mother's name Dumas meaning of the farm Anton died before he saw the decorated hero his son would become and the Fame brought the name Dumas unaided by nepotism Alexandra climbed the ranks through sheer Talent he served under the Marquis de Lafayette during revolutionary riots in Paris at 31 he was the first person of color to be promoted to Brigadier General in the French army his victories in battle opened up the Alpine pass so Napoleon could take over Italy Austrian soldiers nicknamed him or the black devil the French called him horatius after the hero who saved ancient Rome Thomas Alexandra married Marie Louise labone and bought a 30-acre farm for them to raise their three children next he was appointed a commander of the Cavalry in Napoleon's conquest of Egypt conditions were poor on the hot desert march to Cairo and many soldiers died General Dumas complained that the men were growing mutinous but Napoleon ignored him and ordered him back to France when he reached the coast he found that British Admiral Horatio Nelson had destroyed the French Armada he was forced to take a small merchant ship back to Europe The Vessel began to sink off the coast of Naples Italy and had to make an emergency landing Dumas expected a friendly reception but discovered the government Napoleon had just founded there had been overthrown Dumas was tossed in a dungeon by the new king of Naples his wife petitioned Napoleon to rescue him but was ignored he languished in prison for two years until the French retook Naples and he was set free malnutrition and possibly poisoning had ruined his physique he was blind in one eye and deaf in one ear he was denied the military Terry pension due to him and his family fell into poverty tomal Alexandra died of stomach cancer five years later his son Alexandra Dumas used his intellect and talent to rise back out of poverty and became one of France's most illustrious writers some of his most famous novels The Count of Monte Cristo The Three Musketeers and the Man in the Iron Mask were partially inspired by his father's life want even more tea on History check out the history Tea Time Podcast available on Spotify Apple podcasts and Google podcasts if you enjoyed this video please like subscribe comment your thoughts and check out my other Royal history videos if you really want to help please consider supporting me on patreon a link is in the description thank you for watching

Channel: History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday

Views: 1,591,153

Keywords: history, documentary, royal family, Royal history, Lindsay Holiday, Lindsay Holliday, History tea time, History tea time with Lindsay Holiday, bridgerton real history, bridgerton, black history, black britain, black british history, black french history, french history, chavalier, chavalier real history, history behind chavalier, dido belle, dido elizabeth belle, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Ignatius Sancho, Olaudah Equiano, Thomas Alexandre Dumas

Id: mp2N4AHCDHY

Length: 27min 58sec (1678 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 07 2023