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Black Ajax

by George MacDonald Fraser

First published 1997

Amazon
3.9(757)

Tom Molineaux is born enslaved in Virginia and wins his freedom through fighting before travelling to Britain, where the Black boxer and former champion Bill Richmond trains him for the brutal world of Regency prizefighting. Molineaux’s power, discipline and public charisma make him the leading challenger to English champion Tom Cribb and a focus for gamblers, promoters and spectators whose admiration remains inseparable from racism.

The story is reconstructed through conflicting testimony from people who profited from, loved or betrayed Molineaux. His two contests with Cribb become national spectacles in which money, class and racial identity matter as much as skill. Fraser turns a celebrated sporting rivalry into a tragedy about a formerly enslaved man whose talent brings fame without protection from exploitation and decline.

Historical Periods

Regency Era1811–1820 CE Abolitionism & American Slaveryc. 1830–1865 CE

Genres

Biographical Fiction Exploration & Survival Fiction

Historical people

Tom Molineaux1784–1818 Tom Cribb1781–1848

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