Ewan Clark bases his poetic version of the correspondence on this collection, bringing Sterne’s words to comment afresh upon a contemporary debate that was becoming even more pressing as the Abolitionist movement gained increasing momentum.
Laurence Sterne, to his most intimate friends (1776), the exchange with Sancho promoted Sterne’s image as a model of compassionate humanity. Sancho died in 1780, with his The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African, edited and published two years after his death, being the first published. As an independent male property owner, with a house and grocery shop on Charles Street, he had the right to place his vote for the Westminster Members of Parliament in the 17 elections. Largely self-taught, he was the first Black. Upon its publication in The letters of the late Rev. Ignatius Sancho is the first known person of African descent to vote in a British general election. Born a slave, Ignatius Sancho (c.172980) became one of the most influential free Africans of his century. Sterne’s reply captures the pathos for which he was becoming increasingly famous, describing how upon receiving Sancho’s letter he ‘had been writing a tender tale of the sorrows of a friendless poor negro-girl, and my eyes had scarce done smarting with it’. With Fifteen Original Autograph Letters Signed by Ignatius Sancho, Several of Which Are Unpublished Ignatius - Available at 2010 February Signature Rare. A contemporary critic described Ignatius Sancho as what is very uncommon for men of his complexion, A man of letters. In July 1766 Sancho wrote to Sterne, imploring him to apply his considerable ability for producing powerfully affecting prose to write against the slave trade. Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African. Ignatius Sancho was a former slave who described the horrors he had experienced in his Letters, published posthumously in 1782.
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