Belle

The sensational true tale that inspired the major motion picture Belle starring Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson, Emily Watson, Penelope Wilton, and Matthew Goode—a stunning story of the first mixed-race girl introduced to high society England and raised as a lady.  

The illegitimate daughter of a captain in the Royal Navy and an enslaved African woman, Dido Belle was sent to live with her great-uncle, the Earl of Mansfield, one of the most powerful men of the time and a leading opponent of slavery. Growing up in his lavish estate, Dido was raised as a sister and companion to her white cousin, Elizabeth. When a joint portrait of the girls, commissioned by Mansfield, was unveiled, eighteenth-century England was shocked to see a black woman and white woman depicted as equals. Inspired by the painting, Belle vividly brings to life this extraordinary woman caught between two worlds, and illuminates the great civil rights question of her age: the fight to end slavery.

Belle includes 20 pages of black-and-white photos.

How did one woman’s life intersect with the monumental legal battles that would change the course of history?
Black British History: Discover the forgotten story of Dido Belle, the daughter of an enslaved African woman, who was raised as an aristocrat in the heart of 18th-century London.Lord Mansfield’s Household: Explore life inside the lavish Kenwood estate, where Dido was raised alongside her white cousin Elizabeth under the protection of one of England’s most powerful legal minds.Landmark Legal Cases: Go inside the trials, including the Somerset Ruling and the Zong Massacre, that challenged the legality of slavery and in which Lord Mansfield played a pivotal role.18th-Century Society: Uncover the story behind the shocking portrait that depicted a black and a white woman as equals, challenging the rigid social hierarchy of Georgian England.