Henry Louis Gates, Jr.[1] had this to say upon reading the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay: “When I read this, I wondered whether Jefferson had heard of Mansfield’s great-niece Belle and whether she reminded him of his own mulatto children. Their story, like so many of our family stories, destroys the fiction of strict racial categories.”

Belle was a mixed-heritage girl raised in 18th-Century British aristocracy. She was educated with all the classical knowledge of the mid-1700s. She enjoyed some privileges rarely experienced by people of color at that time. Yet Dido Elizabeth Belle saw the signs all around her that people with skin of a darker shade were treated very differently—terribly in some cases—wretchedly in far too many cases.

Belle’s great-uncle was one of the highest judges in all England. He settled a case in 1772 that was an early precedent for equality. It revealed that slavery was not affirmed by God or nature. Slavery was described in this act as odious and evil. This case allowed that slavery could only exist where man-made laws permitted the age-old practice, and there was no precedent for slavery in English common law. Not much of a first step, since man-made laws were hardly rare around the world—but it was a first step. In 1807, the British Parliament passed an act that ended the slave trade in England. In 1833, Great Britain abolished slavery altogether.

Was this first step taken in part because young Belle bore a loving influence upon her great-uncle? How did she touch his heart? How did she move his thoughts? How did she, a young dark-skinned girl, lead him in the right direction? If Belle did not live in his home, would the judge, a pillar of British imperialism, have ruled for human rights to take precedence over imperial power? Would he have done it, if not for Belle?

This is a fascinating possibility. At the heart of the human march toward freedom, a girl of mixed African-English heritage was raised by her great-uncle. As fate provided, he happened to be William Murray, Lord Mansfield, the lord chief justice of England and Wales—the very man who would decide the case, the first step, and the acknowledgment that even under man’s law the practice of slavery is an abomination.

And the fiction of “strict racial categories” continues to fade away today.

Image: Portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray.[2] Read about Belle’s story[3] and a good film depiction[4] of her fascinating life and times.

[1] See biography at: http://www.biography.com/people/henry-louis-gates-jr-9307556

[2] See: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dido_Elizabeth_Belle.jpg in public domain in United Sates

[3] See: http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/05/did_belle_really_help_end_slavery_in_england.5.html “Who Was the Real Dido Elizabeth Belle?” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., posted 8/25/2014

[4] See: http://www.belle-themovie.com/#/