An intriguing history of Africans in Tudor England.Kaufmann (Senior Research Fellow/Institute for Commonwealth Studies, Univ. ', 'a historian of excellent investigative skills, who shows attention to detail, uses evidence with appropriate caution and has the sensibility of a scholar.’, 'a splendid book... it is that rare thing: a work of history about the Tudors that actually says something fresh and new... a cracking contribution to the field [which] bears all the marks of meticulous research... yet she wears her learning lightly. These are the questions that Miranda Kaufmann perceptively probes in Black Tudors. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in.

She concentrates on 10 individuals, ranging widely in social class and location, from cities to the countryside, including a royal trumpeter, a porter, a silk weaver, and an independent single woman.

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Black Tudors by Dr Miranda Kaufmann is an ambitious book loaded with little-known Tudor trivia that has long been overdue in the study of 16th century England, and fortunately for the future of this little-explored topic, the result is a fascinating production of the utmost quality that takes a close look at ten individuals who could, quite accurately, be considered Black Tudors.

The author does a great job of weaving the facts with possible reasons things happened.

She provides a wealth of detail and only occasionally gets lost in minutiae, making the book a highly instructive history of an understudied part of Tudor society An eminently readable book that offers contemporary readers valuable insights into racial relations of centuries past.

', 'Kaufmann's book is not only a fascinating and erudite exploration of race in Tudor England but also a vibrant, eminently readable and tender portrayal of individual lives.

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BLACK TUDORS tells the stories of ten Africans. It was only later when the English became seriously involved in the African transatlantic slave trade that the perception of Africans changed, but English law never recognised slavery in England. Miranda Kaufmann traces their tumultuous paths in the Tudor and Stuart eras, uncovering a rich array of detail about their daily lives and how they were treated.

Dr Kaufmann’s research is impeccable... She treats each of her subjects as individuals in their own right... exploring each life with a delicate warmth and respect that endears those individuals to the reader. For anyone interested in the Tudor period, 'The subject couldn’t be in safer hands.

The author argues that the common perception that all Africans were enslaved by the British is erroneous and that Renaissance England had many free Africans who were part of the social fabric. Black Tudors: Tudor England’s legendary history is a rich locus in the popular imagination.

Why and how did they come to England? To order a copy for £16.14 go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. What were their lives like? Disappointing on the topic being written about.

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Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Black Tudors: The Untold Story at Amazon.com. She found over 360 individuals of African origin living in England and Scotland in the years between 1500 and 1640 and uses the stories of some of them to expand on the world they lived in, using themes of navigation and piracy, colonisation, the slave trade, social hierarchy to paint a picture of Tudor life.

', ‘In a work of brilliant sleuthing, engagingly written, Kaufmann reclaims long-forgotten lives and fundamentally challenges our preconceptions of Tudor and Jacobean attitudes to race and slavery.’, John Cooper, Senior Lecturer in History, University of York, and author of, ‘A brilliant example of how to use the most detailed kind of archival data to present a broadly accessible picture of the past, and one which has enormous relevance to the present controversies about immigration and diversity.'. These are the questions that Miranda Kaufmann perceptively probes in Black Tudors. ', 'a fascinating look at a time before England’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade made the dehumanization of African people the norm. Each story is anchored in the social and political history of the time. of London) presents the stories of 10 African men and women engaged in a variety of occupations, from trumpeter to trader. ', a fascinating book, which brings a sadly neglected part of our history to life, and grinds no ideological axes in the process.'. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages that interest you. Recommended for racist uncles who whine about “hIStOrICal AccUrAcy!”, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2020. I think anyone would benefit from this book, I just purchased it in Kindle form and I will now pick it up as a hardcover as well. The book was extremely disappointing on historical detail about black Tudors though the book purports to be about that very topic. There was far too much surmise and imagining of events that 'might have' taken place. 'rich and emblematic stories... Kaufmann brings her subjects to life [with] empathy tethered to fact and context... ' [a] consistently fascinating, historically invaluable book...The narrative is pacey, the research scrupulously thorough and the tone mercifully free of sermonising.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2018. I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time at school learning about the Tudors.

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2017 This is the first time I have real actual information pertaining to Blacks in England during the Tudor dynasty. © 2008-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, See all details for Black Tudors: The Untold Story.

Menu. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2019, Basically a collection of stories of black tudors -- interesting from a historical point of view but I didn't find the structure or storytelling element of the writing very engaging. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2017. Some may have been servants, but they were never slaves. "Despite the insatiable appetite for all things Tudor, from raunchy television series to bath ducks modelled as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn," she writes, "the existence of the Black Tudors is little known." All rights reserved. It has a ton of details, and many more stories than the 10 you expect (each chapter is on a different person).

Disabling it will result in some disabled or missing features. Prime members enjoy Free Two-Day Shipping, Free Same-Day or One-Day Delivery to select areas, Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Reading, and more. Since they left few documents behind, Kaufmann pieces together their histories from church records, references in various documents by influential Englishmen, literary works, paintings, and other sources. This (along with many other works being produced at the moment) is a much needed corrective to the UK's mistaken belief that people of colour did not exist in this country until the mid-20th century. "Black Tudors: The Untold Story" by Miranda Kaufmann does an excellent job of highlighting the African presence in Britain during Tudor times.

© 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Meticulous research draws on sources from letters to legal papers, and Kaufmann also reflects on the challenges: “Fleshing out these biographies from the meagre documentation that remains is not easy, but it is a mission that must be undertaken if we are to reclaim their stories”. But the fact that they were present in numbers large enough to be noticed, means that British history needs to be viewed in a different light. the wonderfully named Reasonable Blackman, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 22, 2018.

Last modified on Wed 21 Mar 2018 19.49 EDT. The detail she unearths brings to life those absent from the pages of history. This is history on the cutting edge of archival research but accessibly written and alive with human details and warmth. 5.0 out of 5 stars This is a MUST for a History Buff!! This page works best with JavaScript. ', a thought-provoking account of 10 remarkable people, and a valuable corrective to some unthinking assumptions about both Tudor society and the role of racial minorities in English history.

The book was extremely disappointing on historical detail about black Tudors though the book purports to be about that very topic. A Much Needed Corrective to the UKs View of It's History, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2019. This account of people of African descent in Renaissance England overturns misconceptions, showing that “it … It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.