ABSTRACT
Since the early stages of colonialism, people from the Caribbean have been coming to Britain and forming intimate and family relationships with people in British society. A well-known case is that of Francis Barber, a Jamaican slave, who at age seventeen in 1752 became servant to Dr. Johnson, author of the famous English dictionary. Barber, who was educated at Johnson’s expense, remained with him and became his valet and secretary, as well as his main heir. Barber married an Englishwoman, they had four children and later bought a school, which he ran with his wife. 1 However, such cases were rare, and social relationships between African-Caribbean and white British people in Britain only started to become much more common during and after World War II. As a consequence of these social interactions, the last 50 years have evinced profound changes in social attitudes and patterns of family relationships in British society.
