On Oct 18, 11:36*am, Paul C wrote:
On Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:06:34 +0100, Alan LeHun wrote:
In article ,
says...
Just to
clarify the matter, Nelson Mandela is a real person who is black and Nancy
was a fictional character whose race was, as far as I know, not specified.

Did Dickens actually ever meet a black person before 1838?

Erm. Yes.

By the last quarter of the 18th century there were estimated to be up
to 10,000 black people in London.

And they were all Dickens characters-remarkable.