John davinier
- •
Dido Elizabeth Belle: A Biography
Dido Elizabeth Belle was born in 1761. It would be nearly 100 years before slavery was abolished. The date would be of little importance if not for one important factor: Belle's father was white, but her mother was of African descent. It was an unthinkable act for the time, and Belle's life was destined for only bad things. But remarkably bad things did not happen. Belle was sent to live with her uncle, the Earl of Mansfield; here she was raised as a free woman and given the same privileged upbringing as her cousins. This book tells the inspiring true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, and how the life of a woman most people have never heard helped pave the way for future change.
- •
Dido Elizabeth Belle
18th-century British gentlewoman
Dido Elizabeth Belle (June 1761 – July 1804) was a British gentlewoman. She was born into slavery and illegitimate daughter of Captain John Lindsay of the Royal Navy and Maria Belle; her mother, Maria Belle, was an enslaved Black woman in the British West Indies. Her father was Sir John Lindsay, a British career naval officer who was stationed there; later knighted and promoted to admiral.[1][2] Lindsay took Dido with him when he returned to England in 1765, entrusting her upbringing to his uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Mansfield. The Murrays educated Belle, bringing her up as a free gentlewoman at their Kenwood House, together with another great-niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose mother had died. Lady Elizabeth and Belle were second cousins. Belle lived there for 30 years. In his will of 1793, Lord Mansfield provided an outright sum and an annuity to her.[3][4]
Early life
Dido Elizabeth Belle was born into slave
- •
The story of Dido Elizabeth Belle: Britain's first black aristocrat
Hanging on a wall in Scone Palace in Perth, Scotland, is an 18th-century double portrait of two young women of high society. One is sitting reading a book whilst the other is passing by clutching a basket of fruit. Both are adorned with expensive silk dresses with pearl necklaces draped across their necks. In the distance, you can make out the Georgian cityscape of London, including St. Paul's Cathedral. There is nothing unusual about the painting drawn by the Scottish artist David Martin, except for the fact that one of the women is black.
The young lady in question is Dido Elizabeth Belle who is captured in the portrait alongside Lady Elizabeth Murray, her seated white companion. In 18th-century British art, black people were often depicted as servants or slaves; it is highly unusual to see a black woman represented as the equal of a white woman. But as we shall discover, nothing about the life of Dido was usual.
Born in 1761 in the West Indies, Dido was the daughter of a young British naval office
Copyright ©cakestot.pages.dev 2025