Letters of the late Ignatius Sancho, an African

Born in 1729 on a slave ship bound for the West Indies, orphaned by the age of two and taken to England by his owner, Ignatius Sancho rose from servitude to become the most celebrated Afro-Briton of his time.

Sancho's varied accomplishments include a number of Afro-British milestones, among them: first playwright; first art critic; first published correspondence; first direct attack on slavery; the only documented Afro-British voter during the eighteenth century; and the first Afro-Briton to be accorded an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.

His thoughts on race and politics - including his criticism of British imperialism in India, the complicity of Africans in the slave trade, and the blatant racism that flourished in his adopted homeland - will be of particular interest to twentieth-century readers.