To mark the start of Black History Month in the UK, today’s Google Doodle celebrates the life of the extraordinary Black British composer, abolitionist, and cultural icon Ignatius Sancho.
A prominent figure during the 1700s that fought for the rights of Black slaves and Black Britons, Ignatius Sancho was a trailblazer in every sense of the word.
Born in Africa around 1729, Ignatius Sancho was enslaved for the first five years of his life on the Caribbean island of Grenada before he was taken to England as a very young child. There, he was forced to serve as a slave for three sisters in Greenwich but eventually managed to run away and escape.