On Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:56:50 +0100, Alan LeHun wrote:

In article ,
says...
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.


Fair enough. I thought that in his position he would have kept company
with the various people who employed (sponsored, whatever) these
immigrants (who were mostly brought in to do household duties) so I
expected a yes.

I didn't expect your figure though. Immigration was piecemeal before
about 1815 when I thought (without much confidence, admittedly) that the
figure was less than 10,000 for the whole of England.


"Following the end of hostilities at the conclusions of the Seven
Years War in 1763 and the American War in 1783, a large number of
black men and women from Africa, the Caribbean and North America
settled in London. By the last quarter of the eighteenth century the
black population of London is estimated to have been between 5,000 and
10,000."
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/stati...-of-london.jsp