Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor

The "Black Poor" was the collective name given in 18th-century Britain to indigent residents of London who were of black descent. The Black Poor had diverse origins. The core of the community were people who had been brought to London as a result of the Atlantic slave trade; sometimes as slaves or indentured servants who had served on slave ships. At the time, black sailors served on both navy and merchant ships. The Black Poor had become a rare but noticeable sight on the streets of London. Most of the Black Poor lived in impoverished East End parishes, or in Seven Dials and Marylebone. They formed a portion of the broader Black British community, which predominantly consisted of people employed at menial urban jobs, but had prominent members such as Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano. While the broader community included some women, the Black Poor seem to have exclusively consisted of men, some of whom developed relationships with local women and often married them.

The Yorkshire Stingo, a public house in Marylebone. The committee used this pub as an distribution outlet for alms to the Black Poor.

On 5 January 1786, an announcement appeared in the Public Advertiser that Mr. Brown, a baker in Wigmore Street, Cavendish Square, was to "give a Quartern Loaf to every Black in Distress, who will apply on Saturday next between the Hours of Twelve and Two". Details followed that enabled black citizens to subscribe. A meeting was organised for 10 January and by the end of the month, a group had summarised the situation. Originally concern was expressed about Lascars, Asian seamen. But, the group found that there were about 250 "Blacks in Distress," of whom only 35 came from the East Indies, the others being from Africa or the West Indies. One hundred men said they had been in the Royal Navy. In common with other responses to serious social problems, the issue was addressed by concerned citizens who set up appeals and fund-raising lists, e.g. there was also a subscription list to support distressed weavers in Spitalfields.

After the original meeting, held in the premises of Mr Faulder, a bookseller of Bond Street, subsequent meetings were held in Batson's Coffee House, opposite the Royal Exchange. The effort attracted some prominent figures from London's financial elite: George Peters, Governor of the Bank of England, Thomas Boddington, the noted philanthropist and slave owner, John Julius Angerstein, General Robert Melville. Montagu Burgoyne was the original chair person, but after a few weeks his business interests took him away from London and he was replaced by Benjamin Johnson, who in turn suffered ill-health and was replaced by Jonas Hanway. The abolitionists Samuel Hoare and two of the three Thornton brothers, Henry and Samuel, were also involved, along with James Pettit Andrews and Sir Joseph Andrews.[1]

On 14 February The Morning Herald remarked:

"The example of the Duchess of Devonshire, in contributing to the relief of the poor Blacks, has had a salutary effect. The Countess of Salisbury, the Countess of Essex, Marchioness of Buckingham and a variety of other titled characters are also on the charitable list."

When the appeal was closed on 18 April, a total of £890 1s had been raised. Donors included many bishops and clergy, including Herbert Mayo and William Pitt. Aside from general benevolence, this cause attracted particular sympathy because so many were Black Loyalists who had served in the British Armed Forces and been resettled in London after the British defeat in the American War of Independence. The largest donation was collected from among the Quakers by Samuel Hoare.

The Committee soon organised two venues for regular distribution of alms: the White Raven tavern in Mile End and the Yorkshire Stingo, in Lisson Grove, Marylebone. These venues were open for several hours a day providing outdoor relief. There was also a sick house set up in Warren Street, where 40-50 men needing medical attention were provided for with indoor relief. Some of the recipients of aid were found jobs, particularly as seamen. In providing clothes so that men could get work as sailors, some of the committee members were simply applying the same charitable methods they had used in organisations such as the Marine Society. But, the shortage of work at sea meant that unemployment remained a problem. Surplus labour was drifting in from the countryside, and many English people also took up begging in London. Lacking the resources to set up any new industry, the Committee took heed of such individuals as Richard Weaver who was "willing and desirous to go to Halifax and other Parts of Nova Scotia where there is a fairer Prospect of Employment" (see Black Nova Scotians). Soon the charity focused its goals on giving "a temporary relief to the objects of the Charity, and in future to provide them with clothes and a settlement abroad" . . . "to such places as may put them in a condition of getting their bread in freedom and comfort".[2]

The committee also was instrumental in the transfer of Black Poor to the newly-established colony of Sierra Leone. Many in London thought that moving them to Sierra Leone would lift them out of poverty.[3] The Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme was proposed by entomologist Henry Smeathman and drew interest from humanitarians like Granville Sharp saw it as a means of showing the pro-slavery lobby that black people could contribute towards the running of the new colony of Sierra Leone. Government officials soon became involved in the scheme as well, although their interest was spurred by the possibility of resettling a large group of poor citizens elsewhere.[4] William Pitt the Younger, prime minister and leader of the Tory party, had an active interest in the Scheme.[5]

By the end of October 1786, three transport ships were commissioned and docked at Deptford. The applicants for the settlement were to sign an agreement, agreeing to the condition that they would retain the status of British subjects, and were to be defended by the British Armed Forces. They were then given a document granting the citizenship of Sierra Leone. Some historians believe that, with government assistance, in total 4,000 blacks were transported from London for resettlement to the colony of Sierra Leone in 1787.[6]

However, even though the Committee signed up about 700 members of the Black Poor, only 441 boarded the three ships that set sail from London to Portsmouth.[7] The authorities, with the support of the Committee, sought to force beggars from the streets of London to join the program, in order to make up for the hundreds who refrained from boarding. Many black Londoners were no longer interested in the scheme, and the coercion employed by the committee and the government to forcibly recruit them only reinforced their opposition.[8] Equiano, who was originally involved in the scheme, became one of its most vocal critics. Another prominent black Londoner, Ottobah Cugoano, also criticised the scheme.[9]

On 9 April 1787, the three ships left Portsmouth with about 280 men and 110 women. They were accompanied by a few tradesmen.[10][11][12] On the voyage between Plymouth and Sierra Leone, 96 passengers died en route.[13] The ones that managed to survive the voyage arrived on the shore of Sierra Leone on 15 May 1787. In 1792, in a move that pre-empted the women's suffrage movements in Britain, the heads of all households, of which a third were women, were given the right to vote.[14] Today the descendants of the Black Poor are the Sierra Leone Creole people.[15]

• Braidwood, Stephen (1994). Black Poor and White Philanthropists: London's Blacks and the Foundation of the Sierra Leone Settlement 1786 - 1791. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-377-2.
• Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution, BBC Books, 2005 (ISBN 0-563-48709-7)
• Sivapragasam, Michael, "Why Did Black Londoners not join the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme 1783–1815?" Unpublished Masters dissertation (London: Open University, 2013).

• "Committee for the Relief of Poor Blacks and their emigration to Sierra Leone", Your Archives, National Archives, UK
• Cassandra Pybus, Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers, UNSW Press, 2006.