The Sugar-cane. A Poem (1764): A Scholarly Introduction By: William Bond James Grainger’s The Sugar-Cane was first published in 1764 in London by R. and J. Dodsley. Grainger was born in the early 1720s in Duns, Berwickshire on the Scottish border. He moved to London in the 1750s, where he worked as a literary critic,…

The Narrative of the Scherife of Timbuctoo (1835): A Scholarly Introduction By: Nicole Aljoe, PhD. The Narrative of the Scherife of Timbuctoo (also known as The History of Abon Becr Sadika or with the spelling “Abu Bakr Al Sadquia”), known in Jamaica by the name of Edward Donlan, came into being after British magistrate, Robert…

A Speech Made by a Black of Guardaloupe, at the Funeral of a Fellow-Negro (1709): A Scholarly Introduction By: Elizabeth Polcha and Alexa Masi. “A Speech Made by a Black of Guardaloupe at the Funeral of a Fellow-Negro” was published in London in 1709 alongside an open letter, “A Letter from a Merchant at Jamaica…

Narrative of Louis Asa-Asa (1831): A Scholarly Introduction By: William Bond and Greg Lumm. Narrative of Louis Asa-Asa, A Captured African was first published in 1831 in the supplement to The History of Mary Prince. Thomas Pringle, the secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, and the editor of Mary Prince’s History, appended paratextual materials to the…

The Narrative of Cudjoe (1793): A Scholarly Introduction By: William Bond. The narrative of “Cudjoe” appears alongside another embedded narrative, “Clara,” in a footnote to Bryan Edwards’s 1793 The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies. The entire footnote can be found on pages 62-4 in Book IV, Chapter III…

The Narrative of Clara (1793): A Scholarly Introduction By: William Bond. All details concerning the life of Clara are contained within a long footnote to Bryan Edwards’s 1793 History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies. The entire footnote can be found on pages 62-4 in Book IV, Chapter III of…

Scholarly Introduction The Narratives of Ashy and Sibell are first-person oral account’s given by Ashy and Sibell, two African-born enslaved women in Barbados. They were originally transcribed in 1799 for a manuscript produced by John Ford. Although there is little known about John Ford, except that he was a white man that likely been born…

The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, in Two Volumes (1793): A Scholarly Introduction By: William Bond. Bryan Edwards’s The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies was first published in 1792 in two volumes – in London by John Stockdale and in Dublin by Luke…

The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, in Two Volumes (1793): A Scholarly Introduction By: William Bond. Bryan Edwards’s The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies was first published in 1792 in two volumes – in London by John Stockdale and in Dublin by Luke…

Obi; or The History of Three Fingered Jack (1804): A scholarly Introduction By: Elizabeth Polcha and Kate Simpkins William Earle Jr.’s epistolary novel, Obi was first published in 1800 by Earle and Hemet in London. According to Srinivas Aravamudan, little is known about the life of William Earle Jr., outside of his career as a writer in…