Black Tudors

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2021

⏱️ 50 minutes

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Summary

Our image of the Tudor era remains overwhelmingly white. But the black presence in England was much greater than has previously been recognised, and Tudor conceptions of race were far more complex than we have been led to believe.

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Onyeka Nubia whose original research shows that Tudors from many walks of life regularly interacted with people of African descent, both at home and abroad - findings that cast a new light on the Tudor age and our own attitudes towards race relations in history.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If we imagine that ethnic diversity in England started with the arrival of the Windrush,
0:09.5	in 1948, we would be sorely mistaken.
0:14.3	Not only do we know that there were Africans and people of African heritage in Tudor and
0:19.2	Stuart England, but the significance of their presence in terms of numbers, impact and status
0:27.2	will probably come as a surprise to all but the most enlightened.
0:31.3	So to explore this important topic and to consider evidence of integration, the sort of
0:36.3	records that help us identify Africans in Tudor, England and the influence of colonialism
0:42.0	on all our thoughts.
0:43.7	I'm joined by one of the foremost scholars in the field, Dr. Onyek Anubia.
0:48.8	Dr Anubia is based at the University of Nottingham and his pioneering research over
0:52.8	the last 30 years has recontextualised popular perceptions of British ethnicity.
0:58.7	His latest book is England's other countrymen, Black Tudor Society, published by Zed Books
1:03.7	in 2019 and he's also the presenter of Walking Victorian Britain, currently showing on
1:09.5	5 Select and My 5.
1:17.1	Dr Onyek Anubia, I am very excited to talk to you again and to have a chance to think
1:23.0	together about the African presence in Tudor, England, in Stuart, England, perhaps a bit
1:28.2	as well.
1:29.7	Your work has encouraged us towards a more diverse and more inclusive history of England.
1:35.5	So what could we say about the African presence in England at this time?
1:40.3	There is an idea and certainly when I used to read on the Tudor period and Stuart period
1:46.1	when I was very young, that England was monorethically white before 1948 in the Empire
1:51.1	Windrush and suddenly the Empire Windrush happened and suddenly multicultural Britain was
	...

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