Richmond Unchained

The Biography of the World's First Black Sporting Superstar

Luke G. Williams

• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• eBook ISBN:
  9781445645094
• Year: 2015

Today Bill Richmond is largely unknown to the wider public, but he was one of the most significant sportsmen in history and one of the most prominent celebrities of Georgian times. Born into slavery in Staten Island, Richmond won his freedom as a young boy and carved a new life for himself in England as a cabinet maker and then a renowned prizefighter and trainer. His amazing life encompassed encounters and relationships with some of the most prominent men of the age, including Earl Percy, William Hazlitt, Lord Byron, the Prince Regent and Lord Camelford. His fame was such that he fulfilled an official role at the coronation celebrations of King George IV in 1821. The story of Bill Richmond is an incredible tale of personal advancement, as well as the story of a life informed and influenced by a series of turbulent historical events, including the American War of Independence, the fight for black emancipation and Britain's long-running conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author’s Note
• Prologue: The Coronation of George IV, Westminster, London, 19 July 1821
• 1 - The Strange Mystery of Bill Richmond’s Birth
• 2 - ‘Humanity Adorns All His Actions’
• 3 - An Education and ‘a Complete Milling’
• 4 - Black Britain and Bill’s Better Half
• 5 - ‘A Turbulent, Rakehelly, Demented Existence’
• 6 - Richmond Is ‘Dared to the Field’
• 7 - Exit Camelford, Enter Cribb
• 8 - ‘The Crowd Were Very Clamorous Against the Black’
• 9 - Bitter Tears for Bill
• 10 - ‘The Dexterity of His Coup de Main’
• 11 - ‘Native Valour’
• 12 - The Molineaux Myth
• 13 - Molineaux ‘Threatens to Mill the Whole Race of Fighters’
• 14 - England’s Anxiety
• 15 - ‘Old England For Ever’
• 16 - ‘The Antipathy Against a Man of Colour’
• 17 - ‘Here Goes the Champion of England’
• 18 - Richmond’s Ruin
• 19 - Richmond Reborn
• 20 - Richmond Retires
• 21 - Richmond’s Crowning Glory
• 22 - ‘The Joys of the Days That Are Gone’
• 23 - ‘You All Lov’d Richmond Once’
• Epilogue: St Martin’s Parish Workhouse, Castle Street, London, 1 March 1858
• Picture Section
• Bill Richmond Ring Chronology
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Bibliography