March 5, 2025 Story by: Editor
Researchers have unveiled the hidden history of Black Londoners who fled slavery in the capital and found refuge within free communities in the East End, drawing parallels with the Underground Railroad in the United States.
Historical records from the Tower Hamlets archives, spanning back to the 16th century, alongside 18th-century “runaway notices” from newspapers, offer fresh insights into Black communities and their resistance to slavery in London.
Between 1567 and 1802, records from areas such as Stepney, Wapping, Shadwell, and Limehouse document hundreds of births, deaths, and marriages of Black individuals.
According to researchers, these records provide a glimpse into larger communities in the East End, where Black people coexisted with white working-class residents and where those escaping enslavement and indentured servitude could find sanctuary. Some had fled from slavers’ ships docked in the city, while others had endured enslavement within Britain.
The Communities of Liberation project, based at the Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives and supported by Prof Simon Newman of the University of Glasgow, conducted the research. Tony T, the project’s research and engagement lead, noted that the evidence suggests a British counterpart to the Underground Railroad—Harriet Tubman’s network of safehouses used to free enslaved people in the U.S.—as runaway notices indicate that individuals were aided in hiding after escaping their “masters” in London.
One such notice, dated 29 February 1748, stated:
“RUN away last Thursday Morning from Mr. Gifford’s, in Brunswick-Row, Queen-Square, Great Ormond-Street, an indentur’d Negro Woman Servant, of a yellowish Cast, nam’d Christmas Bennett; she had on a dark-grey Poplin, lin’d with a grey water’d Silk … and suppos’d to be conceal’d somewhere about Whitechapel.
Whoever harbours her after this Publication shall be severely prosecuted; and a Reward of a Guinea will be given to any Person who will give Information of her, so that she may be had again.”
Another advertisement from 6 June 1743 describes a woman named Sabinah, who had escaped from the captain of a ship bound for Jamaica and was reportedly “deluded away by some other Black about Whitechapel.”
Parish records indicate that as London’s maritime activity expanded between the Tudor and Georgian eras, the presence of free Black people grew across different sectors of society. Some, like Ignatius Sancho, owned property or were esteemed members of elite households, while others arrived as workers, soldiers, seamen, and musicians.
The Black population also increased as captains, merchants, and officials transported enslaved people to Britain, with some bearing visible marks of bondage, such as scars and collars.
For those who escaped slavery, life remained fraught with danger. Safe havens in the East End included the White Raven pub in Whitechapel, where Black patrons resisted bounty hunters, and St George-in-the-East Church in Shadwell, which, by the mid-18th century, had committed to baptizing people who had fled enslavement.
“People were seen as property, wanting to escape was seen as a mental illness, and an offence against their owners,” said Tony T. “How did people stay safe? One way was living in communities.
“In the East End of London there are also prominent slave traders … even where Black people are free, they are still living under the shadow of the systems of the slave trade.”
During the 18th century, Black individuals in the East End found employment in various fields, working as blacksmiths, ropemakers, carpenters, mariners, and shipbuilders, both in and out of enslavement, with some utilizing skills brought from Africa, T added.
However, the financial incentives for capturing escaped enslaved people fueled an industry of bounty hunters, informants, and secret dungeons—some even operating out of pubs.
In 2018, the University of Glasgow’s Runaway Slaves in 18th-Century Britain project compiled over 800 advertisements placed by “masters” in a database. Newman noted that this serves as a stark reminder that “slavery was routine and unremarkable in Britain during the first three-quarters of the 18th century.” Source: The Guardian
