Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World

Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World: A Review Journalthis period, it appears that the Allens again fell on hard times. On 8 April 1878 William Allen wrote toF.W. Chesson, who had replaced Chamerovzow at the Anti-Slavery Society:You’ll be glad to know that your letter to Mr Cheetham, Heywood, Lancs, was mostly effectiveas he has responded £5, a donation which, under the circumstances, was very useful… Has any moretranspired regarding our friend from Barbados? 51From this we learn not only that the family continued impoverished, but that William’s involvementwith the Anti-Slavery Society continued. What form this took is not revealed in the Society’s papers.How did the Allens survive between 1878 and 1887, our final glimpse of William’s life? With the supportof their children? In August of that year there is an account of a ‘party of coloured singers, late of thePennsylvania Jubilee band’ who gave a concert in the Wesleyan Chapel in Strood, a small town inKent, about 30 miles south-west of London, andA cultured address on the characteristics of his race was given by Prof. Allen, who adds to prideof past negro history unbounded faith in their future influence of the world’s events. 52There was another concert in the Methodist Hall:the in interval was admirably filled with the most excellent address from Professor Allen, on‘The characteristics of the Negro race’, who, in the course of his remarks, said that from a religious,social and humorous point of view the negro race had before them a grand and glorious future; thatthe black people were not created by the great God for th white man to shoot at; that, when the negrorace were fully developed, fully civilised, they would exhibit to the eyes of the world, by their intensityof religious and social feelings, combined with their great intellectual power, what a man should be.He gave many illustrations which clinched the nails he had driven in. He said that “good humour wasthe juice of the brain”, which the negroes had an abundance of, as evinced in their modes of salutationwhen they met each other. That, by and by, as the negro’s mind developed, it should be shown thatthey had a glorious future. 53From Strood the singers moved further into rural Kent to give concerts in the town of Faversham andthe village of Boughton. These were advertised as ‘Slave Songs, Quaint Slave Melodies, and CampMeeting Shouts, Addresses on Slave Life, &c.’ There is no mention of ‘Prof. Allen’ in the reports of theconcerts, though presumably it was he who gave the ‘addresses on slave life’.As the concerts were free, and the ‘Collections to defray Expenses’ were to be shared with theContinental Sunday School Mission Fund, neither the singers nor the ageing William could have mademuch of a profit, even if their accommodation was free. 54 How very sad, that this highly educatedman, even now when compulsory education had been introduced, could not apparently find moreregular and appropriate employment. Had the situation of Black people in Britain deteriorated evenfurther? According to historian Douglas Lorimer,at least until the 1860s, Englishmen responded to the social rather than the physical attributesof black residents…they were prepared to accept black gentlemen as gentlemen…{But] a change inattitude occurred… Blacks were identified by their race and history with servitude and savagery. 55The 1881 Census had found the William, described as ‘Professor of Music & Elcn’ (elocution?) andhis wife Mary (no occupation given) living in Rackham Street, London, a street which no longerexists. Their children are listed as: Julia, Dublin-born, aged 23, ‘Teacher of Music & Elcn (Music)’; theoccupation of Harriett, aged 22 and Mary, aged 19, both Dublin-born, is given as ‘Berlin Wool Worker(Fancy)’; Hoxton-born William, aged 12 (who might have died in 1883), and Islington-born Helen,aged 8 were ‘scholars’. 56 There is no mention of Patrick – had he left home? Married? We do not know.63