AUTHOR’S NOTE

“Absence of proof is not proof of absence.”
~James W. Loewen

(From Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong)

This is a complete work of fiction. The hero is not based on any known person, nor is this meant to be a fictionalized version of some actual event in history. While there are records of Africans in Europe—including Scotland—dating back to the early fifteenth century, revealing the total populations and exact locations of those Blacks is not the intent or focus of this work. I’ve written this work as entertainment only, sprinkled with some historical truths.

Admittedly, I had no story concept in mind when I told my editor I wanted to write a historical romance about a Black Highlander. I love to read Highlander romances, so having never discovered one with a Black hero, I thought I’d write my own. Because my undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature was paired with a concentration in African American Studies, I understood the broad nature of the African diaspora, though it had been some time since I focused on the displacement of Africans outside the United States.

Similar to other European countries’ history of African enslavement, Scotland played a large role in the slavery-driven economies of the Caribbean—Jamaica in particular. Like those brought to the Americas, Africans enslaved by Scots fought to escape, accompanied their enslavers on sojourns to their native land (on occasion), and sued for or sought (and sometimes acquired) emancipation. As I revisited the presence of Blacks in Europe during the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries, one tidbit in particular caught my fascination: pirates. Yep, pirates.

When pirates grabbed ships carrying enslaved Africans, they kept and disposed of that human cargo along with any other bounty on the vessels. Information varies as to the fate of those seized as part of pirate raids. Some writings suggest there were pirates who considered the enslaved Africans worthless cargo. (I have to wonder about that theory.) Other writings indicate there were pirates who sold captives to Scots or Brits, who kept the captives as domestics as a symbol of their affluence.

The knowledge that Scottish pirates regularly raided slavers made me ask “What if?” as we writers often do. What if some of those Africans escaped or were set free? Where did they go? What if they were given sanctuary amongst Highland clans? And from there this story was born.

Note that the story starts at Stirling Castle because I find this castle particularly fascinating. I’ve taken a few liberties with the timeline of the residency of King James VI and I in the castle. Historical accounts indicate he lived in England after the Union of the Crowns, and I found only one documented sojourn in Scotland thereafter (in 1617 on occasion of the 50th Anniversary of his accession to the Scottish throne). Interestingly, King James did spend time at Stirling Castle during that 1617 visit, and only the devoted King James scholar will likely notice that his presence at my fictional Stirling Castle has been fudged by a few years. And, yes, this is the James I who granted a charter to the Virginia Company for colonial pursuits in North America and authorized the English translation of what we know as the King James Bible.

The idea for the Black trumpeter who so enthralled our heroine came from records that indicate the presence of Blacks in the court of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Of note was John Blanke, a Black trumpeter for whom two images exist that are said to date back to 1511. Other records show royal payments to persons of African descent—thought perhaps to be free—for various services.

Because the study in the U.S. of African enslavement frequently begins in 1619 with the British colonists, many Americans do not learn the extensive nature of the African diaspora. It is rarely taught, if at all, in U.S. elementary schools or high schools that the Portuguese were granted the “right” to enslave sub-Saharan Africans by Pope Nicolas V in the mid-1400s (to extend Christianity and deter paganism). Over time, this edict led to late–fifteenth century and early–sixteenth century trade in captives with other Europeans and transport of captives across the Atlantic. Accordingly, Caribbean plantations owned by Scots and Spaniards and other Europeans during this period used enslaved African laborers. In fact, the Spanish brought enslaved Africans to North America (to present-day Florida) around the mid-1500s, about a half century before the settlement of Jamestown by the British colonists.

I encourage you to learn more on your own. A good place to start for little-known U.S. history is the book from which the epigraph for this author’s note was taken: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. A good resource for a general global account of African enslavement is Black Cargoes: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1518-1865 by Daniel P. Mannix.

Yours in romance and curiosity,

Lisa Rayne