Don't know that we can really read contemporary understanding of the word black into this quote. I think given the context of England at the time, as well as the description of his family background, it is very unlikely that he was black.
I was wondering about that. Is there a way to verify? It would be really interesting if he were, and it would be equally interesting if there was some way to show conclusively that he wasn’t.
It’s a tricky subject, but it must be possible to approach it with scientific curiosity and clinical detachment...
1. How would an English clergyman in the first half of the 1700s typically describe someone who was of African descent? This appears to be the guy who wrote the description: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cole_(antiquary). My intuition is that the wouldn't just use "black," but would probably use something more specific, like "African" or "negro."
2. At that time, would a "black" person (in the modern sense) have been accepted into the kinds of positions John Michell had (like being a member of the Royal Society), with so little comment on his race?
Black people were very rare in Britain at the time, this term was used very broadly for people like Italians, Iberian descent, jews, etc.
I doubt there is any way to show "conclusively" that he wasn't, but I would say the evidence is pretty strongly against. Someone I quoted in another reply provide more reasoning on what that evidence is.
It wasn't until 1786 that the British government first employed one of the (relatively few) black men in a minor role, yet I'm supposed to believe based on a contemporary reading of this text (before "black" was nearly widely used to mean what it does today) that this (at least 3rd generation) British professor at Cambridge was black?
Highly doubtful. I'm not sure what statistics you are basing off of.
Here's a more reputable source than me:
> An account apparently purports him to be "a little short man, of black complexion, and fat", though we have been unable to locate any specific contemporary source. However, such words even if used do not necessarily indicate he is of black-African descent, as the term can refer also to Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, Arabs, Ethiopians, or Jews. Jonathan Swift uses the expression "a tall, thin, very black man, like a Spaniard or Jew." In the given context it is almost certainly intended as a slight against Michell by painting him as something he was likely not. The Royal Society famously refused election to Jamaican scientist Francis Williams (1702-1770), on account of his complexion, and it almost certainly would not have elected a black man as early as 1760. Moses Da Costa became the first Jew elected to the Society in 1736, and a second was elected in 1747; the first female was not elected until 1945. The earliest black individual we could determine that attended Queens College, Cambridge was an American, Alexander Crummell, who graduated 1853.
The main text of that entry appears to be a slightly-reworked version of the public-domain 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, but the Google Books image doesn't have the footnote you quoted. I'm guessing it's original to that NNDB site, which probably started with the encyclopedia like Wikipedia did.
