“In me you see the Almighty’s wondrous Power”: Amelia Newsham, race, and black women’s intellectual history in Georgian Britain

Journal article

Born enslaved in Jamaica, Amelia Newsham had albinism, a condition not fully understood in the eighteenth century that contributed to nascent understandings and debates regarding racial difference. Known as the “white negro,” Amelia was examined and exhibited across England by “men of the Enlightenment” who sought scientific explanations for her white skin. Their ideas were published or traceable in their correspondence. But what of Amelia? This paper places a brief archive from 1791 within the context of the ongoing “race debates” of the eighteenth century to consider how she understood her own difference and the question of human variety.

Authors: Ono-George, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Journal: Journal of the History of Ideas
• Volume: 87
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 351-367
• Publication date: 2026-05-02
• Acceptance date: 2026-04-01
• DOI: 10.1353/jhi.2026.a989313
• EISSN: 1086-3222
• ISSN: 0022-5037
• Language: English