Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780)
Ignatius Sancho is thought to have been born in 1729 on a slave ship bound for the Caribbean. He was orphaned, aged two, and taken to London by his master, where he worked as a child slave for, and was ill-treated by, three sisters in Greenwich. He then persuaded the Duke of Montagu to employ him as his butler, also in Greenwich. The Duke took Sancho under his wing and ensured he was educated. Ignatius wrote music, appeared on the stage, wrote theatre reviews, spoke out against the slave trade and moved within the literary and artistic circles of 18th-century London. Left some money by the Duke of Montagu, he opened a grocery shop in Westminster and became the first black man to vote in a British election. Ignatius Sancho became the symbol of the humanity of Africans, countering arguments that they were uncivilized and unable to be educated, he claimed that