What was Planches attitude toward slavery and the treatment of African people, generally?
Like many Englishmen of his day, he was opposed to slavery. Part of this was due to personal moral conviction, and part simply to patriotism. The United Kingdom outlawed slavery (and–unilaterally–the slave trade on the high seas) long before the United States, and the majority of British people frowned on America’s love affair with what they regarded as a brutal and vicious institution. People of African heritage were undoubtedly treated better in the United Kingdom than they were in the US at the time, although this is relative. When Ira Aldridge, the great African-American tragedian, performed “Othello” in London, some critics were more interested in his complexion than in his abilities, and Black circus performers were often mocked in the papers. Planche seems typical. On one hand, he learned something of Gullah from an American performer in London, and gave the gentleman credit in his writing. He spoofed a popular American song in “Mr. Buckstone’s Voyage ‘Round the Globe,” claimi
