Para1Black people were present in early modern England in notable numbers, not just as isolated cases. Noted in records with indicators such as “a Black”, “a blackamoore” and “of Morisco”, they lived in London, other major cities like Plymouth and Bristol, and the countryside. Historian Oneyka Nubia notes that in the London parish of St. Boltoph, records indicate that Black people made up 5% of the population. They were numerous enough in London that in 1601, shortly before the probable date of the writing of Othello, an edict was issued that the Negars and blackamoors in the city be deported. People of African, Moorish, and Arabic descent lived and worked in early modern England as merchants, musicians, craftsmen, and domestic servants. Some are known to history by name and many are not; most were free, although some were enslaved. They likely faced significant prejudice and racism in life, as they did in literary works like William Shakespeare’s 1604 play, Othello: The Moor of Venice.

Para2Scholar Imtiaz Habib’s Black Lives in the English Archives 1500–1677 discusses the origins and history of the lives of Black people in early modern England. Habib demonstrates that Black people were part of English society but were seldom fully documented. One of the better documented individuals was Catalina de Motril, a high-ranking servant who came from Spain with Catherine of Aragon at the time of her marriage to Prince Arthur Tudor, the older brother of Henry, in 1501. In a letter, she and one other servant were only marked as two slaves to attend on the maids of honour (Habib 23). The other person’s name and fate are lost. But Catalina may have played an important role beyond serving a princess: she was a regular attendant of the bedchamber, which was a position of some privilege, and later she testified about the potential consummation of Catherine’s marriage to Arthur as it pertained to Henry’s VIII’s divorce case against her. De Motril left England at some unknown point in the 1530s and returned to southern Spain, marrying and living in Malaga.

Para3Like her, other Black people may have held important roles in English society but were seldom given credit. Habib discusses the Black skilled craftsmen, military, religious professions, and scholars (Habib 22) who did not get respect or credit through their work. They were present but often invisible in the historical record.

Para4Although unusual, Black people arel represented through literary works of the early modern period. Scholars such as Ian Smith and Nandini Das discuss the binary implications of color, with white symbolizing purity and black indicating the opposite. Das claims that The color black often represented malignity, death, or wickedness (42), and sometimes even an association with witchcraft. Illustrations from Shakespeare’s Othello often highlight this contrast.

Para5Smith explores how in early modern plays, black cloth was used to indicate a character’s blackness. White actors who adorned themselves in black cloth were playing the role of a Black person, a kind of racial cross-dressing that probably also included mimicking skin color and hair texture. For instance, Smith notes that blackface (possibly oiled walnut juice or charcoal) was commonly used to mimic the look of black skin. Not only that, lambskin with dark wool was used to mimic textured hair.

Para6Kim F. Hall details the concept of a moor as an elastic identity, one that could signify a dark-skinned African or a lighter-skinned Arab, possibly someone from the Iberian Peninsula, which was ruled by Muslims from 792–1492 CE. The vague boundary of what exactly a moor was arose from confusion regarding language, nation, geography, colour, and religion (181). Hall details how the concept of African moors became dominant, and terms like blackamoore, black, tawny, white, and negro all indicate varying appearances and varying identities. Moors presented on the Elizabethan stage or in other forms of entertainment were typically coded both evil and male, according to Hall.

Para7Shakespeare’s presentation of Othello as a hero but also a murderer wrestles with this tradition. For instance, in Act 1 Scene 1, Iago and Roderigo question the authenticity of Desdemona’s marriage to the celebrated military leader, implying Othello used some sort of witchcraft to win her. Not only that, they refer to him repeatedly as the moor in order to alienate and dehumanize him. Even though Shakespeare portrays Othello as a hero in some light, his blackness defined him (and many other blacks in England) no matter how hard they worked for approval.