Hi, this is my very first post on reddit! I'm sorry for asking so many questions at once, but I recently read As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann and was confused by some of her descriptions. From what I understand, this book is a pretty accurate portrayal of 17th century England. She describes the main character as "black." Would that mean black like the way Black Irish people are called black? Or were there soldiers fighting in England during the 17th century who were from Africa? Where there many black people in England at the time who would have been able to fight in Oliver Cromwell's army?
Thanks for your time!
Black people sure did exist in the 17th century; there were so many in the 16th century that Queen Elizabeth I tried to deport them all, in fact.
As to whether or not they fought in the New Model Army, as far as I'm aware there's no proof either way, but given that barely 50 years before its inception, the Queen had said "there are of late divers black-moores brought into this realme, of which kinde of people there are allready here to manie," one would assume they were taking sides in the civil war.
From looking at the plot of the book the main character is unlikely to be actually black. Could you give us the bit of description where she uses the word please? I can think of a few possibilities.
'Black' is a descriptive term in English that predates it's use to describe skin colour. Look at the Black Prince for instance. And the term 'blackguard' meaning a scoundrel. It usually means villainous or similar. If your character isn't being ethnically described he is likely to be being described as having an evil look about him.
I don't know about the character in the novel, but in the seventeenth century the word 'black' was just descriptive rather than racial. When Charles II (prince charles at the time I think) was on the run after the civil war he was described as a 'tall black man'.