SOURCE: Sandhu, Sukhdev. “Ignatius Sancho: An African Man of Letters.” In Ignatius Sancho: An African Man of Letters, edited by Reyahn King and others, pp. 45-73. London: National Portrait Gallery, 1997.

In the following essay, Sandhu situates Sancho's letters in the context of writing by and about Black people in eighteenth-century England, analyzes the style and content of the letters in detail, considers Sancho's relationship to and supposed emulation of Laurence Sterne, examines Sancho's fluctuating reputation since the eighteenth century, and discusses the style of the Letters in relation to Sancho's purpose, personality, and experiences.

Sale of a Negro Boy.—In the account of the trial of John Rice, who was hanged for forgery at Tyburn, May 4, 1763, it is said, ‘A commission of bankruptcy having been taken out against Rice, his effects were sold by auction, and among the rest his negro boy.’ I could not have believed such...