Black Victorians, Black Victoriana Book

Genre
History, Black History, European History, Essays

Summary
Black history, as it's taught in America, consists of a brief overview of slavery, the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, and the life of George Washington Carver. In other Western countries, the situation is apparently not much better; historians have been trained to think of white history as history and anything else as an obscure specialization. There are, thankfully, efforts to change that, and this book focuses on a particularly neglected period; the lives and rights of Black people living in England during the Victorian era.

Information
I got this book a few years ago because I wanted to know how to write non-white people in a Victorian inspired setting. And by Victorian inspired setting I mean steampunk. I was expecting a comprehensive picture, but instead it's a collection of academic essays on different aspects of Black Victoriana. It was less of a picture, more of a collection of puzzle pieces, which in a way was more interesting. It's intent was to open a conversation, by pointing out interesting and neglected facets, and leaving the reader still curious to learn more.
These articles touch on genealogy, famous individuals, immigrants, families, portrayal of Africans in Victorian culture and the efforts Black Victorians took to reclaim their image. Every one of these articles taught me something fascinating and new, and several gave me character ideas. I'd definitely recommend this both to writers and history nerds.

Tone: What's it Like to Read This Book?
Obviously it varies by author, and it should be noted these people are mostly academics first and writers second. While some of them were stiff, they were straightforward and relatively easy to get through; nothing painfully bogged down in jargon or made artificially complicated. The prose is plain, but the content more than makes up on it.

Other Shiny Stuff
- An entire essay on the fabulously fascinating life of Pablo Fanque, who owned one of the most successful and famous circuses of his era. Yes, that's one of the ones that gave me a story idea.
- The story of Ida B. Wells' trip to Britain and how she continued her fight for racial justice there.
- Absolutely beautiful photos and illustrations of Black people in Victorian garb.
- The article on the Pan-African Conference of 1900 is required reading if you are into anti-imperialist and decolonizing movements.
- This is a fabulous starting point, not only because of the subject matter within, but because it draws from so many authors and references so many other books. It's an introduction with a built-in reading list for your continued research.

Content Warnings
You're good.