The Sanchos in 2024: A symposium to celebrate Charles Ignatius Sancho's Letters in Electronic Enlightenment

Jack Orchard and Mark Rogerson are the Content Editor and Technical Editor respectively of the Electronic Enlightenment platform.

In this talk, they will give a brief introduction to the Electronic Enlightenment collection of over 70,000 historical letters from the 17th to the 19th century, discuss the process of adapting Vincent Carretta's Broadview edition for the platform, and how they see the letters of Ignatius Sancho both aligning with their existing collections, and representing an opportunity to develop in new and exciting directions.

Vincent Carretta is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Maryland. His recent publications include: The Life and Letters of Philip Quaque: The First African Anglican Missionary (2010), co-edited with Ty M. Reese; an edition of Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African (2015); Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings (1995; rev. eds. 2003, 2020); Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man (2005; rev. ed. 2022); Phillis Wheatley Peters: Biography of a Genius in Bondage (2011; rev. eds. 2014, 2023); and The Writings of Phillis Wheatley Peters (2019; rev. ed. 2024).

In this talk, Vincent Carretta will briefly address what led to, and what may follow, the creation of the Broadview Sancho. 

Markman Ellis is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies at Queen Mary University of London. With Nicole Aljoe and Oliver Ayres, he is completing an edition of Sancho's Letters for Oxford World Classics. He is the author of The Politics of Sensibility: race, gender and commerce in the sentimental novel (1996), The History of Gothic Fiction (2000), The Coffee-House: a Cultural History (2004), and Science and Reading in the 18th century (2023) and co-author of Empire of Tea (2015). He co-edited Discourses of Slavery and Abolition: Writing in Britain and its Colonies 1660-1832 (2004) and has published essays on Ignatius Sancho, 'slave' narratives, and eighteenth-century Caribbean poetry.

Joanna Brown is a writer, educator and researcher working in the field of Black British literature and history. She is currently completing a practice-based PhD in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Writing for children under the name J.T. Williams, Joanna is the author of award-winning historical fiction series, The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries (Farshore Books) and Bright Stars of Black British History (Thames & Hudson).

Charting her own personal encounters with the lives and legacies of African Londoners of the eighteenth century, Joanna Brown, writing for children as J.T. Williams, reveals the joys and challenges of bringing Sancho's world to life for a young audience. 

Montaz Marché is a historian, writer, theatre director and producer. She is a PhD researcher at the University of Birmingham and she specialises in histories of gender, race in Britain and the British empire from eighteenth-century to present day. She is Artistic Director of the Ruckus Theatre Company and regularly works in historical consultancy, media, television, theatre and public engagement.

Anne Sancho's history has continually been underrepresented, despite her role as the family matriarch, a bookseller and businesswoman, having run the Sancho shop for many years longer than Ignatius had. Her story speak to experiences of blackness, femininity and class at the turn of the nineteenth century. Using combined social history practices and creative methodologies, we can retrace her life and reposition her significance as a pillar of the Sancho family's life and legacy.