THE EMPIRE WRITES BACK

Part 2: Black and Asian visitors to Britain, 1734-1942

For more than three centuries black and Asian peoples have been visiting Britain.  Among the earliest visitors were Indian servants and ayahs (nannies) brought to England by British families, and Indian sailors, the lascars, who crewed the ships and steam-powered liners.  While African visitors arrived via the West Indies, America and Canada: some as immigrants and others as slaves.  In Part 2 of our series the Empire Writes Back we focus on the lives and experiences of these African and Asian visitors to Britain during the period 1734-1942.

The collection provides the personal histories of some fifty men and women – many written in their own hand – and contains more than eighty printed works.  While a number of these titles were printed in Britain a good selection were printed elsewhere, in Calcutta, Madras, Dacca, Bombay, Lucknow, Boston and New York, and include rare and first editions.

What did Asian and African visitors think of Britain, the land of their rulers?  How did they find British customs, culture and climate?  Did they praise, pity, blame or criticise their hosts?

Titles include:

• A S P Ayyar, An Indian in Western Europe (1942)
• P M Choudry, British Experience (1889)
• Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Narrative of the remarkable particulars in the life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince, related by himself (1770)
• Thomas L Johnson, Twenty-eight years a slave, or the story of my life in three continents (1882)
• Dean Mahomet, The Travels of Dean Mahomet (1794)
• Agnes Janaki Penelope Majumdar, Pramila: A Memoir (nd)
• Sir Mancherjee M Blownaggree, The Verdict of India (1916)
• Dadabhai Naoroji, Lord Salisbury’s Blackman (1889)
• Equiano Olaudah, The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)
• Omai, An historic epistle from Omiah to the Queen of Otaheite; being his remarks on the English nation (1785)
• Ignatius Sancho, The Letters of Ignatius Sancho (1802)
• Mary Seacole, Wonderful Adventures in Many Lands (1858)
• Benjamin Silliman, A journal of my travels in England, Holland, and Scotland (1812)

Written from the viewpoints of black and Asian peoples there is a wealth of valid information concerning British culture and customs, religion, politics and economics.  Issues of race, gender and class are discussed and political activists argue their causes – some for colonial liberation and some the abolition of slavery.  Some Asian families sent their children to be educated in Britain, and student life is described by  Rakhal Das Haldar in The English Diary of an Indian Student, 1861-62 (1903).  For others the visit to Britain was an adventure to see and experience the land of their rulers.  A Hindu’s account of Three Years in Europe (1873) was written as a guide-book to Indian youths intending to visit Europe.  Some visitors stayed and set up successful businesses, Sake Dean Mahomed introduced an Indian vapour baths and shampooing firm in Brighton becoming superintendent of the Royal Baths at Brighton and ‘the shampooing surgeon to George IV’.  We include three editions of his work Shampooing, or, Benefits Resulting from the Use of the Indian Medicated Vapour Bath (1822, 1826, 1838) as well as his first book The Travels of Dean Mahomet (1794). 

Political figures include Ottobah Cugoano who travelled to England as a slave with his owner Alexander Campbell in 1772.  By 1788 he was a freeman becoming a leading figure in the black community devoted to the cause of emancipation, and his views are expressed in Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery of the Human Species (1787).  Asian politics are discussed by Dadabhai Naoroji, son of a Parsi priest, who came to England in1855; his interest in politics led him eventually to be elected to the House of Commons in 1892.  He stood for causes such as trades unions, women’s franchise and Irish home rule, and was a constant petitioner for Indian independence and against colonial malpractice.  We include twelve titles by Naoroji including The First Indian Member of the Imperial Parliament (1892) and Poverty and un-British rule in India (1901).  Women who travelled to Britain also had their stories to tell. Mary Seacole was born a free woman in Jamaica and practised as a nurse in the Crimea, being recognised alongside Florence Nightingale.  Her life history is told in The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole in Many Lands (1857).

To complement and broaden the context and understanding of the collection we also include a selection of general reference titles including: Indian Worthies, Anon (1906); British Folks and British India FiftyYears Ago,  J H Bell (1891); In Darkest England and the Way Out, William Booth (1890); The East London Evangelist, vol 1, William Booth (1868); Sketches of some distinguished Indian women, Georgiana Chapman (1891); In Darkest London, Margaret Harkness (1891); Anglo-Indian Worthies, Henry Morris (1890); Modern Indian worthies, N Narayanan (1920) and Representative Indians, G Paramswaran Pillai (1897).

The writings of Rozina Visram and C L Innes have been of great assistance in putting together this collection of black and Asian literature.  Empire Writes Back, Part 2 contains a wealth of material on Empire, Colonialism and slavery complementing our series Colonial Discourses, and our collections for abolition and emancipation.