Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500–1677 : Imprints of the Invisible

"Containing an urgently needed archival database of historical evidence, this volume includes both a consolidated presentation of the documentary records of black people in Tudor and Stuart England, and an interpretive narrative that confirms and significantly extends the insights of current theoretical excursus on race in early modern England." "Here for the first time Imtiaz Habib collects the scattered references to black people - whether from Africa, India or America - in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, and arranges them into a systematic, chronological descriptive index. He offers an extended historical and theoretical interpretation of the records in six chapters, which serve as an introductory guide to the index even as they articulate a specific argument about the meaning of the records." "Both the archival information and interpretive scholarship provide a strong framework from which future historical debates on race in early modern England can proceed."--Jacket Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Figures and Tables Preface Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: The Missing (Black) Subject 1 Early Tudor Black Records The Mixed Beginnings of a Black Population 2 Elizabethan London Black Records The Writing of Absence 3 Black Records of Seventeenth-Century London A Benign Neglect and the Legislation of Enslavement 4 Black People Outside London, 1558–1677 The Provincial Backdrop 5 Indians and Others The Protocolonial Dream Afterword Chronological Index of Records of Black People, 1500–1677 Works Cited Index Early Tudor black records: a mixed beginning Elizabethan London Black records: the writing of absence Black records of seventeenth century London: a benign neglect and the legislation of enslavement Black people outside London 1558-1677: the provincial backdrop Indians and others: the protocolonial dream.