Lists, we all make them – shopping lists, ‘to do’ lists that never seem to get any shorter (come to think of it, that seems to apply to shopping lists too in this household!).
In his latest article, John Ellis draws attention to the lists that a historian with an interest in Black British history might draw on, they include: enslaved people (on vessels and in plantations); muster lists of Black Loyalists (from the American War of Independence); and liberated people (‘The Book of Negroes’, 1783). I would add to that the lists of the London Black poor compiled by the authorities in the 1780s and lists of names of men, women and children transported to Australia – lists that between them contain thousands of names. Names but, usually, little else. Each name on any of these lists represents a human being, they each lived a life and had some sort of story to tell but we rarely have any idea what their story was. A list captured their name in a moment in time and that was it.
I have looked at these lists myself at various times and have sometimes wondered about the possibility of finding the same person in more than one of them – that might start to piece together a life story. To do that requires patience, determination and a good slice of luck. I have never really had the first (or second) of those in sufficient quantity to get past the ‘wondering’ stage. Fortunately, John Ellis is made of sterner stuff:
For over twenty five years I have been compiling a database of Black soldiers who served in the Crown (or ‘King’s’) regiments of the British Army in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Very occasionally, an individual can be identified on more than one list. Daniel Green is one such individual.
One man, two lists and beginnings of a coherent life story. You can read about Daniel Green here: https://www.historycalroots.com/a-black-loyalist-drummer-daniel-green-of-charleston-south-carolina-and-the-38th-the-1st-staffordshire-regiment-of-foot-from-1783-to-1801/