SOURCE: Jekyll, Joseph. “The Life of Ignatius Sancho.” 1782. Reprinted in The Letters of Ignatius Sancho, edited by Paul Edwards and Polly Rewt, pp. 22-9. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1994.

In the following essay, the original editor of Sancho's letters provides a brief biography of the author and discusses European opinions on the intellectual equality and humanity of Africans.

‘Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses.’

Virgil

The extraordinary Negro, whose Life I am about to write, was born a. d. 1729, on board a ship in the Slave-trade, a few days after it had quitted the coast of Guinea for the Spanish West-Indies; and at Carthagena he received from the hand of the Bishop, Baptism, and the name of Ignatius.

A disease of the new climate put an early period to his mother's existence; and his father defeated the miseries of slavery by an act of suicide.

At little more...