Belle

Description:

The illegitimate daughter of a captain in the Royal Navy and an enslaved African woman, Dido Belle was sent to live with her great-uncle, the Earl of Mansfield, one of the most powerful men of the time and a leading opponent of slavery. Growing up in his lavish estate, Dido was raised as a sister and companion to her white cousin, Elizabeth. When a joint portrait of the girls, commissioned by Mansfield, was unveiled, eighteenth-century England was shocked to see a black woman and white woman depicted as equals.

subjects: Race relations,  Family,  Racially mixed people,  Nobility,  Slaves,  Illegitimate children,  Antislavery movements,  Biography,  History,  BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women,  BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary,  BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical,  Women, biography,  Women, great britain,  Nobility, great britain,  Antislavery movements, great britain,  Great britain, race relations,  Enslaved persons

People: William Murray Mansfield Earl of (1705-1793),  Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804)

Places: England

Times: 18th century