John Hawkins Slave Trader
Who was John Hawkins and what was his role in the trade in enslaved Africans? Understanding Hawkins’s activities is key to the question of to what extent Tudor trade with …
Course: Black Tudors: The Untold Story
Tudor Trade With Africa: Competing With Portugal
From the mid-16th century onwards, there were increasing opportunities for encounters between Africans and English merchants through the expansion of trade routes. In the Tudor period, we start to see …
The salvage crew of the Mary Rose
A lot of what we know about Jacques Francis the salvage diver comes from a court case relating to the theft of goods from the wreck of a merchant ship …
What did Free Soil mean for Black Lives in Tudor England?
Contemporary accounts from the Tudor period make references to England as a land of ‘free soil’. We also see references to the idea of the ‘pure air’ of freedom. What …
John Blanke’s Pay Rise Petition to the King
So what evidence do we have for the story of John Blanke? Now we have looked at John Blanke’s portraits in the Westminster Tournament Roll, we’d like you to examine …
John Blanke: Historian Perspectives and Theories
In the previous activities we started to explore some of the original primary sources which provide evidence about the life of John Blanke Course contributor Michael Ohajuru’s John Blanke Project …
Were There Africans in Tudor England?
Evidence has been found of more than two hundred people of African origin or descent living in Britain during the Tudor period (1485-1603). These ‘Black Tudors’ and ‘Black Stuarts’ were …
Black Tudors: Diego and The Golden Hinde
What was the plan for the voyage of 1577 and what was the role of Diego? Who sponsored it, and what were the goals and objectives? The voyage was to …
Black Tudors: The Somerset Case
In this article, we look at how ideas such as ‘Free Soil’ and ‘Pure Air’ continued to be significant in the 18th Century in the period of British colonial enslavement. …
Black Tudors: John Anthony’s Story
The year 1619, when the Silver Falcon left Dover for Virginia, is particularly significant in Black History. It was in August that year that the first enslaved Africans arrived in …
The Inventory of Cattelena’s Possessions
Who was Cattelena of Almondsbury? What we know about Cattelena comes from the inventory record of her possessions which she left after her death in 1625. In her inventory Cattelena …
Black Tudors: Who Was Anne Cobbie?
Who was Anne Cobbie? We glimpse Anne Cobbie in a 1626 Court Case recorded in the Westminster Court of Session Records, when a witness testified: “There is one Anne Cobbie …
Visual Sources: Looking at Portraits
Although we have a remarkably detailed written ‘portrait’ of Mary Fillis in her baptism record, there are no visual portraits of Mary Fillis or of other Black Tudor women. As …
Understanding the Lives of Black Tudor Women
In this article, we examine the lives of Black women who left traces in the archival records of 16th and early 17th century England. Just like the Black Tudor men, …
