Google is marking Black History Month in the UK with a Doodle of 18th Century composer and influential arts figure Ignatius Sancho.
He was born on a slave ship in 1729 on its way across the Atlantic from West Africa.
The child was then taken to the UK and sold to three wealthy ladies, according to historian David Olusoga.
With the help of one aristocratic figure he began to be educated. As a young man he fled the household of the three women, found another home and learned about music, poetry and writing.
Sancho went on to write plays, poetry and music and also set up a salon where similarly creative people could meet.
Also, because he came to own some property, Sancho is known as the first black person in Britain to have been allowed to vote.
As a side note, there is a bit of discussion about the portrait that Google based its Doodle on.
It used to be associated with Olaudah Equiano, who was born in what is now Nigeria and later became a campaigner against the slave trade. But it is now thought to be of Sancho.
Source: BBC
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