Scipio Africanus

The grave of Scipio Africanus

Scipio Africanus (1702 – 21 December 1720) was a slave born to unknown parents from West Africa. He was named for Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major, the third century BCE Roman general, famous for defeating the Carthaginian military leader Hannibal.

Life

Very little is known of his life. He was the servant of Charles William Howard, 7th Earl of Suffolk, who in 1715 married Arabella Morse and lived in the "Great House" in Henbury, Gloucestershire near Bristol. It is not known how he was acquired, but he died there aged, according to his headstone, eighteen. His master and mistress would die two years later.

Grave

He is remembered because of the elaborate grave, consisting of painted headstone and footstone, in the churchyard of St Mary’s in Henbury, which is a grade II listed building.^[1] Both stones feature black cherubs and the footstone bears the unusual epitaph:

I who was Born a PAGAN and a SLAVE

Now sweetly sleep a CHRISTIAN in my Grave

What tho' my hue was dark my SAVIOR'S sight

Shall Change this darkness into radiant Light

Such grace to me my Lord on earth has given

To recommend me to my Lord in heaven

Whose glorious second coming here I wait

With saints and Angels him to celebrate

It is thought that 10,000 black slaves and servants were in Britain in the early 18th century, but this is one of the very few memorials to them. Curiously, there is no record of his burial in the church registers.^[2]

Cultural references

The author Eugene Byrne featured Scipio Africanus in his alternate history novel, "Things Unborn". In this novel people who had suffered an untimely death were 'reincarnated' in an England recovering from an atomic war; Scipio Africanus was a famous war hero and a Detective Inspector in the Metropolitan Police. During the course of the novel he twice saves the life of the King, the reincarnated Richard III of England.

Also: The 1980's Bristol based reggae band 'Black Roots' wrote a song about Scipio Africanus which they performed live at Trinity Hall, Bristol on Channel 4's 10 part series 'Rockers Roadshow' produced by Mike Wallington and hosted by the late Mikey Dread in the 1980's. They featured a short cut scene of the grave back in the 1980's. (soon to be released on dvd)

Sources

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

References

1. ^ "Memorial to Scipio Africanus 10 metres NW of south porch of Church of St Mary". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=379142. Retrieved on 2007-03-16. 
2. ^ "The 18th century: church records". Discovering Bristol. http://www.discoveringbristol.org.uk/showNarrative.php?nacId=475. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.