Ignatius Sancho was born in 1729 on a slave ship and spent the first two years of his life enslaved in Grenada. His mother died when he was very young, and his father took his own life rather than become a slave. When Sancho was two years old, his owner brought him to England. This marked the beginning of his life outside of slavery but still under challenging circumstances. In England, Sancho worked as a servant first in Greenwich and later for the Duke of Montagu. During this time, he taught himself to read and became an outspoken critic of the slave trade. He also started to create music, as well as write poetry and plays. In 1773, he and his wife opened a grocery shop in Westminster. The shop became a popular meeting place for many well-known writers, artists, actors, and politicians. Sancho was financially independent and became the first black person of African origin allowed to vote in British parliamentary elections. Sancho died in 1780, and after his death, a collection of his letters was published and quickly became a bestseller, with five editions printed. His letters expressed his strong views against slavery and helped the movement to end the trade. In 1778, he wrote about English sailors’ main goal being money. He also highlighted the suffering caused by the slave trade and pointed out that some African kings were involved in capturing slaves, supported by European customers providing weapons. One of his letters described this cruel trade as an 'abominable traffic' filled with cruelty and betrayal.