Cedric Barber

Cedric Barber is a living descendant of a former Jamaican slave, Francis Barber, who became the servant, friend and heir of Dr Samuel Johnson.
Johnson wrote the now legendary dictionary, Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755) while they both living in Gough Square, London. Around that time it was estimated that about 10-15,000 black people were living in Britain. If they and their descendants all lived an average life, having an average number of children, then there could be up to three million other white people in Britain today with a black ancestor from this period. This photo was taken for of Black and British: A Forgotten History, a BBC series revealing
the extraordinary long relationship between the British Isles and people whose origins are in Africa.