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Sat 10 Oct 2009Grub Street's finest
BIOGRAPHY: Samuel Johnson: A Life By David Nokes Faber Faber, 415pp, £25
IN 1752, A FULL half-century before slavery was abolished in Britain, Samuel Johnson took on a freed black slave as his manservant. Francis Barber had been entrusted to him by an English planter with connections in Jamaica. By employing Barber, Dr Johnson could put into practice Britain’s fundamental principle of liberty (as he saw it) and realise the idea of “imperial trusteeship” for the betterment of “native societies”.
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