Ignatius Sancho: Google dedicates doodle to British composer on Black History Month’s 1st day

Google today honors Ignatius Sancho, the former slave who advocated for abolition through prolific letter-writing. He was a British writer, composer, business owner and abolitionist. Google dedicates him an attractive doodle on the starting of the UK's Black History Month.

Ignatius Sancho was born in 1729, the exact date is not known to anyone. He is the only Briton of African heritage known to have been eligible and voted in an 18th-century general election through property qualifications.

Ignatius Sancho gained fame in his time as "the extraordinary Negro", and to 18th-century British abolitionists he became a symbol of the humanity of Africans and immorality of the slave trade.

Ignatius Sancho (full name Charles Ignatius Sancho) was born on a slave ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean, in what was known as the Middle Passage. His mother died not long after in the Spanish colony of New Granada, corresponding to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. His father reportedly took his own life rather than live as a slave.

Ignatius Sancho was enslaved for the first five years of his life on the Caribbean island of Grenada before he was taken to England as a toddler. There, he was forced to serve as a slave for three sisters in Greenwich but eventually managed to run away and escape. He then gained employment with another aristocratic family for whom he worked for the next two decades. Having taught himself to read and write, Ignatius Sancho utilized his employers' extensive library to further his self-education.

A skilled writer, Ignatius Sancho penned a large volume of letters, many of which contained criticism of 18th-century politics and society. Newspapers published his eloquent calls for the abolition of slavery, which provided many readers their first exposure to writing by a Black person. The multi-talented Ignatius Sancho also published four collections of music compositions and opened a grocery store with his wife in Westminster. As a financially independent male homeowner, he was qualified to vote — a right he historically exercised in 1774.

During the 1760s, Ignatius Sancho married a West Indian woman, Anne Osborne. He became a devoted husband and father. In 1768, Thomas Gainsborough painted a portrait of Sancho at the same time as the Duchess of Montagu sat for her portrait by the artist. By the late 1760s, Ignatius Sancho had already become accomplished and was considered by many to be a man of refinement.

Ignatius Sancho's extensive collection of letters was published posthumously in 1782, garnering huge readership and widespread attention to the abolitionist cause.

Ignatius Sancho died at the age of 51 on December 14, 1780. Google today dedicates a beautiful doodle in his memory.

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