Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African - To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of his Life

Born a slave and largely self-taught, Ignatius Sancho (c.1729–80) corresponded in Britain with a wide social circle that included nobility, artists and politicians. Published in 1782, this two-volume collection of his charmingly composed letters helped counter contemporary racism by showing that Africans possessed as much natural intelligence as Europeans.