cover image The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave Who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir

The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave Who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir

Michael Bundock. Yale Univ., $35 (288p) ISBN 978-0-300-20710-1

Bundock, a director of Dr. Johnson’s House Trust, reveals the life of Francis Barber, whose dual roles as domestic servant to and devoted friend of Dr. Samuel Johnson highlight the challenges and opportunities available to people of color in Georgian England. Born a slave on a Jamaican plantation, Barber came to England as a child in 1750 with his owner, whose son was a friend of Johnson’s. Two years later, the newly widowed Johnson engaged the adolescent Barber as his servant; Burdock suggests that Johnson may have been “stirred from his depression by the company of a young boy in his cheerless household.” Johnson’s investment in Barber transcended the usual master-servant relationship: he paid for Barber’s education, used his influence to win Barber’s discharge from the Royal Navy, and, as his health failed, came to rely on Barber and Barber’s white wife for household management and companionship. Johnson even bequeathed most of his money and property to Barber in his will, to the outrage of many of Johnson’s friends. 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. Illus. [em](Mar.) [/em]