Black Tudors
Black Tudors by @drmirandakaufmann
Guest Reviewed by Jack
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I was unbelievably fortunate to hear Dr. Miranda Kaufmann give a lecture on her fantastic book, Black Tudors at the @britishmuseum a couple of years ago.
For someone who has spent much of their life loving the Tudor period of history, it was eye-opening to say the least. Dr. Kaufmann's book, itself an extension of her Ph.D. thesis now available to read in full as well, is a revelatory look at the lives of Black Tudors and the role they played in society.
British history is whitewashed, no question and Dr. Kaufmann’s work is one of hopefully many books that will start to unpick the fundamental lie that Black people were not present in early modern British society and did not play pivotal roles.
In Black Tudors, we are told of 10 Africans who lived as free people in Tudor England. From a porter who publicly whipped a white Englishman to a Mauritanian diver sent by Henry VIII to recover artefacts from the wreck of the Mary Rose to a member of the Royal Household Band to a Mariner and others in-between, we are taken through a richly painted, painstakingly researched account of Tudor history but not told as usual through a prism of Lords, Ladies, Kings and the white-centrist narratives we are taught in school and beyond but through a new lens and one the begins to bring much-needed colour to our national history.
In the current climate of widespread action against racism, and race relations in England and around the world, education is key and an understanding of what English and British history means to what we are as a society and culture and why is paramount.
The ongoing effort and renewed focus on re-storying or re-centering narratives of British history away from the conservation of imperialist, white-centric tropes are of the utmost importance - we must know where we come from if we are to move forward and this book is a fascinating look at the untold stories of Black individuals in one small period of the long story of British history.
