Proceeding up-stairs we came first against a printing press, with which an intelligent looking African was printing off copies of a handbill…
Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser
Saturday 17 May 1856
I was not looking for Roger, but those words in an article about a small-town exhibition had me hooked.
– Why was there a presumption that an African shouldn’t be intelligent?
– What was the journey that had brought him here?
– Surely, he wasn’t an exhibit?
– Why did the newspaper think he didn’t warrant a name?
And so the search began and the Roger Britten slowly emerged…from British Guyana to Royston Hertfordshire, from collector’s piece to the Queen’s printer.
Read the full story (part 1 & part 2) on the Hertfordshire Memories website.
And hear the song that KJAR Boyz Choir wrote about Roger, who like every printer wanted to make a good impression.