Ignatius Sancho
merchant · composer · London · 1729?–1780
Said to have been born on a slave ship. At about two he was sent to England and brought up by three sisters at Greenwich; he served as butler in the household of the Duke of Montagu and then opened a grocery shop with his wife. He composed music and wrote many letters, which were collected in a book after his death.
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1766 · The opening of his first letter to the novelist Laurence Sterne. He goes on to quote a passage on slavery from Sterne's sermons and begs him to give half an hour's attention to slavery as practised in the West Indies. This edition prints the date as July 1776, but Sterne died in 1768, so it is taken here as a misprint for 1766.
I am one of those people whom the vulgar and illiberal call “Negurs.”--The first part of my life was rather unlucky, as I was placed in a family who judged ignorance the best and only security for obedience.--A little reading and writing I got by unwearied application.--The latter part of my life has been--through God’s blessing, truly fortunate, having spent it in the service of the best families in the kingdom.--My chief pleasure has been books.--Philanthropy I adore.
Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African (3rd ed., 1784) · Letter XXXVI, to Laurence Sterne
July 23, 1778 · The close of a letter to Mrs. C.
We have no news but old lies--scoured and turned like misers coats which serve very well. We gape and swallow--wonder and look wise--conjurers over a news-paper, and blockheads at home.
Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African (3rd ed., 1784) · Letter LXIX
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