The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave Who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir, by Michael Bundock
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The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave Who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir, by Michael Bundock
Best Ebook PDF The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave Who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir, by Michael Bundock
This compelling book chronicles a young boy’s journey from the horrors of Jamaican slavery to the heart of London’s literary world, and reveals the unlikely friendship that changed his life. Francis Barber, born in Jamaica, was brought to London by his owner in 1750 and became a servant in the household of the renowned Dr. Samuel Johnson. Although Barber left London for a time and served in the British navy during the Seven Years’ War, he later returned to Johnson’s employ. A fascinating reversal took place in the relationship between the two men as Johnson’s health declined and the older man came to rely more and more upon his now educated and devoted companion. When Johnson died he left the bulk of his estate to Barber, a generous (and at the time scandalous) legacy, and a testament to the depth of their friendship. There were thousands of black Britons in the eighteenth century, but few accounts of their lives exist. In uncovering Francis Barber’s story, this book not only provides insights into his life and Samuel Johnson’s but also opens a window onto London when slaves had yet to win their freedom.
The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave Who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir, by Michael Bundock- Amazon Sales Rank: #1099778 in Books
- Brand: Yale University Press
- Published on: 2015-03-31
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.25" h x 1.00" w x 6.13" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 296 pages
Review “At last, the biography that Francis Barber deserves. A meticulous yet imaginative book which teases out the full humanity of Dr. Johnson’s servant—and of the affection and hostility he generated among contemporaries.”—James Walvin, author of The Zong: A Massacre, the Law and the End of Slavery (James Walvin)“Michael Bundock has written the first biography in over one hundred years of Francis Barber, Samuel Johnson’s black servant and heir. Acknowledging the groundwork laid over a century ago, Bundock goes well beyond earlier commentators in exploring the evolving relationship between Johnson and Barber.”—Vincent Carretta, University of Maryland (Vincent Carretta)“Like James Boswell before him, Michael Bundock is a lawyer, and in his biography of Samuel Johnson’s servant that background serves him well. Reading the evidence, some newly discovered, he brings Francis Barber to life, deepens our understanding of Johnson, enriches our sense of quotidian eighteenth-century London, and provides an unusual contribution to black history in England.”—Robert Folkenflik, University of California, Irvine (Robert Folkenflik)“The Fortunes of Francis Barber is the most complete and accurate account of the life of Francis Barber that has ever been produced or is ever likely to be produced. This book far outstrips all earlier accounts.”—Robert DeMaria, Jr., Vassar College (Robert DeMaria, Jr.)“This is an indispensable volume, by far the most readable and comprehensive and authoritative account of Francis Barber’s life that’s ever been written – or that ever could be written, at least with the source materials we currently have.”—Open Letters Monthly (Open Letters Monthly)“Bundock’s lively biography offers a fresh perspective on Johnson and locates Barber both in Johnson’s household and in the context of an empire beginning to debate the political and moral legitimacy of slavery.”—Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly)‘[Bundock] is a lawyer by profession, and one of the great pleasures of reading his completely captivating book is to watch him gathering all the evidence and teasing out the truth… one of the very few books about Johnson worthy to stand beside that classic.’—John Carey, the Sunday Times. (John Carey The Sunday Times 2015-04-19)‘Michael Bundock’s accomplished biography tells the story of Dr. Samuel Johnson’s black servant and friend, Francis Barber, giving a much needed biography to a man who has hitherto been relegated to footnote status… Bundock’s scrupulous research finally puts the record straight.’—Paula Bryne, author of Belle: the True Story of Dido Belle, the Times. (Paula Bryne The Times 2015-05-09)‘Bundock’s tale of [the Georgian period], written with a Johnsonian clarity and verve, absorbs from start to finish.’—Ian Thomson, New Statesman. (Ian Thomson New Statesman 2015-05-22)“In The Fortunes of Francis Barber, there are indeed plenty of rivalries, along with burned diary entries, tossed-off insults, and spiky descriptions that would likely get a stamp of approval from Johnson’s satiric contemporaries. Yet what distinguishes Michael Bundock’s book is not its hijinks but its illuminating scholarship . . . Pick up The Fortunes of Francis Barber for its promise of lexicographical and 18th-century antics; read it for the engrossing history it reveals.”—Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe New Mexican)‘Barber’s story receives expert, sensitive treatment in Bundock’s biography.’—Tony Barber, Financial Times. (Tony Barber Financial Times 2015-06-27)‘The Fortunes of Francis Barber is concise, clear-headed, sympathetic and scholarly…’—Charles Nicholl, London Review of Books. (Charles Nicholl London Review of Books 2015-07-16)“Another outsider who has attracted a supremely skilled biography this year is Francis Barber, the Jamaican slave who became valet to Samuel Johnson. A model of how to use one apparently insignificant life to break open a historical moment that could otherwise be approached only through historical documents… allows Bundock to explore what life felt like for a black man in Georgian England—Kathryn Hughes, Guardian (Kathryn Hughes Guardian 2015-12-05)
About the Author Michael Bundock is a director of Dr. Johnson’s House Trust and former editor of The New Rambler, the annual journal of the Johnson Society of London. He is the author of numerous essays and articles on Samuel Johnson, Francis Barber, and eighteenth-century history and literature.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A Frank Account By Christian Schlect A clear, careful writer explains what there is to be known about Francis Barber. Ordinarily the idea of a serious biography of a servant borders on the absurd. However, two special facts rescue this book: here (1) the servant is a black man, one step away from slavery, and now living in 18th century England and (2) his master is the great Samuel Johnson.Michael Bundock tells an interesting tale of slave societies and the end of slavery in England, of sea-faring, of blacks within British society, of inheritances and wills, and of the ever present one for whom the age was named,
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Dr. Johnson's Friend and Heir By Rob Hardy Samuel Johnson looms large in literature, but does so less because of his own poems, essays, stories, and dictionary than he does because of James Boswell’s superb biography. He was a perfectly fascinating man with abundant virtues and flaws, and anyone who has interest in him will be absorbed by a new biography. A biography, that is, of Johnson’s servant: _The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave Who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir_ (Yale University Press) by historian Michael Bundock. The author has a unique vantage point from which to write: he is the director of Dr. Johnson’s House Trust, the house in London where Johnson lived from 1748 to 1759 and in which garret he composed his famous dictionary. Johnson’s life is well known; besides Boswell’s, he had biographies by contemporaries and has had more recent ones as well. Barber’s life is obscure, and big parts of it remain so despite this fullest of possible biographies. Nonetheless, there is a good deal here to learn not just about Barber, but about the slave trade and about the status of black people in London and in England in general. And fans of Johnson will find here new reasons to appreciate the great man himself.Barber was born into slavery in Jamaica around 1742, and in 1750 his owner took him to England when his sugar plantation failed. The owner’s son was within Johnson’s circle, and proposed Barber to be part of Johnson’s household. Johnson had a horror of slavery so he and Barber were never master and slave; master and servant they were, and as much as could be without bloodline or legal adoption, they eventually became as father and son. Perhaps in filial rebellion, after a few years Barber joined the Navy. Johnson arranged for his discharge against his will. Barber came back to work, was sent for further schooling, and returned to Johnson’s household, remaining a faithful servant to his master until Johnson died in 1784. He had other interests, and one of them was women. “Frank has carried the empire of Cupid farther than many men,” his acting father wrote. He married a pretty white woman and had children by her, all of whom came to live in Johnson’s household. (The first, a son, was given the name Samuel; he did not live long, and when another son came along, he was also named Samuel.) Johnson, never in good health, became more dependent on Barber as the years went on. When the two of them were visiting Oxford on their last ramble a few months before Johnson’s death, there was to be a sensational balloon ascent; Johnson was unable to get out to see it, but sent Barber so that he could report back. When death came to Johnson, Barber was one of the two people at the bedside, having helped arrange all his master’s complicated medical care until the end.Johnson’s will made it clear how much esteem he had for his servant, settling a good annuity upon him. Barber followed his master’s suggestion and left London for Johnson’s birthplace, Lichfield, where he set up a school in a nearby village. His school was no more successful than Johnson’s had been in the pre-London days. Barber didn’t handle money well (a fault common to so many of Johnson’s friends and dependents), and had to sell many of the mementos that Johnson had given him. Barber had made an enemy of John Hawkins, Johnson’s associate who rushed the first biography into print after Johnson’s death; it described Barber scurrilously. But Barber had the good fortune to have made a friend of James Boswell, who had nothing but good to say in describing “good Mr. Francis.” The first biography is now forgotten, and Boswell’s never will be, so Barber gets postmortem honors. Bundock’s biography, with its wealth of details about Barber, Johnson, and British society, tells as much as we can possibly know about this minor personage who had the great good fortune to come under Samuel Johnson’s protection, and to become his friend.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Dr. Johnson's Black Servant, Francis Barber. By Valerie Nordberg As I'm interested in Dr. Samuel Johnson, this story of his servant and friend,Francis Barber, was engaging despite the blank in information on his early years. I felt the author captured well the atmosphere of the time Francis lived in and how awkward it was for a black man to live amongst white Londoners. On the whole I enjoyed the book and feel it will interest many others keen on that period or subject.
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