ABSTRACT
A statistical analysis of the black archives sampled in this study reveals several valuable patterns. But before embarking on such an analysis it is necessary to reiterate that the significance of the records lies not in their total number but in the predictive effect of their symptomatic nature. The total volume of black records constitutes only a symptomatic indicator of the black population in early modern England and not a representation of their actual numbers, which are liable to be higher. The black people in the English archives between 1500 and 1677 who can be seen and determined to be such, can only be the symptoms of a larger population that must remain unavoidably invisible, but whose substance must be included however proportionately in any serious assessment of the historical black presence of the period.
