Black and British: A Forgotten History

by David Olusoga

Some black performers arrived in Britain as established stars of the American stage and were able to attract large audiences. Bill Kersands, a comedian and minstrel dancer of legendary athletic skill, toured Britain in the 1880s. Kersands performed his dance routines for Queen Victoria and was a hit on both sides of the ocean. His routines however struggled to escape the crude stereotyping of the blackface shows. Known for his large mouth, one feature of his act involved him putting billiard balls in his mouth, several at a time, and contorting his face to comic effect. To uproarious laughter he would attempt to regale his audience with comic anecdotes through a mouthful of billiard balls or even while holding a complete cup and saucer between his lips. When he met Queen Victoria, Kersands is reputed to have said, ‘If God ever wanted my mouth any bigger, he would have to move my ears.’66 Given that throughout the nineteenth century it was not unknown in both Britain and America for physically disabled people, or those with congenital birth defects, to be put on public display in travelling circuses, the contortions of Bill Kersands’ large mouth might have seemed relatively harmless in comparison, were it not for the fact that his physical comedy was so in keeping with prevailing stereotypes of black people as a race that was marked out by outlandishly sized lips and mouths – as well as other features.