London: Printed by J. Nichols, 1782. First edition. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards, measuring 169 x 117mm and collating complete including frontis to each volume: [4], lvii, [1, blank], 204; [4], 224. Joints professionally repaired and morocco spine labels restored. Light scattered foxing, mostly confined to preliminary and terminal leaves. Some staining to upper corner of frontisportrait in volume I not affecting image and light offsetting to title page of the same. In all, a pleasing, clean, complete example of this scarce memoir, which details the life of Ignatius Sancho from his transport on a slave ship to his life in England. Scarce in first edition, it has only appeared twice at auction in the past decade.

"Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780) was born into slavery on a ship crossing the Atlantic to the West Indies in 1729. His earliest personal memories were of Greenwich, near London, where as a child he was forced to work for three wealthy sisters. He eventually persuaded the powerful Montagu family, who lived nearby, to employ him as their butler before eventually retiring to run a grocery in Westminster" (Carey). Thanks to the present posthumously published work, however, we know so much more about the rich inner life and social contributions of Ignatius Sancho. "A writer, composer, shopkeeper, and man of letters, he was a social reformer and an acute observer of English life" (British Library).

As described by this biography and Sancho's letters, his origins seem extraordinary -- largely because so few of the people born into these conditions had the opportunity to publicize their stories in the event that they survived. Born during the Middle Passage, "Sancho grew up an orphan: his mother died when he was an infant, and his father died by suicide rather than live in enslavement"; and while his enslavers in Greenwich sought to keep him in ignorance, "John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, encouraged his education and gave him books to read" (British Library). Through this opportunity, Sancho not only became an avid reader but also a scholar, a composer, and a writer; shortly before his death, he even became the first Black man to vote in England. "Sancho wrote letters to the editors of newspapers advocating for the cessation of the slave trade; these letters vividly illustrated the trade's inhumanity for a broad audience, largely people who had never read words written by a Black person...Only after his death, however, did Sancho's words reach a large public readership when they were collected and published...The two volume set sold well and delivered Sancho's reflections on slavery and empire as well as his own vexed experiences as a highly educated person of African origin living in London during the 18th century" (British Library). The words and legacy of Ignatius Sancho, documented here, made "this work indispensible to the study of Black literature" (Blockson).


Blockson 101.11. Sabin 76310. ESTC T100345. (Item #5310)