Marika Sherwood
Quite clearly, virulent anti-Black racism (racial stereotyping, prejudice
and discrimination) had its origins in Europe with the trade in enslaved
Africans. But there is evidence to indicate that, until the early to
mid-nineteenth century, attitudes in Britain towards Black peoples
were ambivalent. While many Britons must have bene®ted from the
`nefarious trade’, directly and indirectly, it is quite possible that the
majority knew little of it and even less of the racist justi®cations for
enslavement. How ± and why ± did a racialised view of
