{"title":"2 Violence, Social Status, and Blackness in Early Modern Germany: The Case of the Black Trumpeter Christian Real (ca. 1643–after 1674)","authors":"Arne Spohr","doi":"10.1515/9783110748833-003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This essay investigates the life of a Black man, Christian Real, who was born in West Africa around 1643, sold into slavery at a young age, and eventually brought to the Holy Roman Empire, where he can be traced from around 1657 to 1674. In contrast to the biographies of many other Black people in early modern Germany, Real’s is exceptionally well documented: Printed and archival sources allow a reconstruction of key moments in his life, experiences whose highly ambiguous character beckons a comparison with biographies of other Black Africans in the Empire. After being baptized in the Free Imperial City of Lindau, Real was brought to the court of Duke Eberhard III of Württemberg in Stuttgart, where he served first as court servant (“Hofmohr” or “court Moor” in contemporary terminology) and later as trumpeter – one of the first Black court trumpeters in the Empire as far as is currently known. Yet while in this prestigious position, he became the victim of a violent attack that almost cost him his life. Walking home from a wine tavern during the night of November 11, 1669, he was attacked by four young men who severely wounded him by disfiguring his face. The criminal investigation of this assault fills over 200 pages of a file entitled “Tödliche Verwundung eines Mohren” (The Severe Injury of a Moor) and kept at the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart.","PeriodicalId":428458,"journal":{"name":"Beyond Exceptionalism","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Beyond Exceptionalism","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110748833-003","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This essay investigates the life of a Black man, Christian Real, who was born in West Africa around 1643, sold into slavery at a young age, and eventually brought to the Holy Roman Empire, where he can be traced from around 1657 to 1674. In contrast to the biographies of many other Black people in early modern Germany, Real’s is exceptionally well documented: Printed and archival sources allow a reconstruction of key moments in his life, experiences whose highly ambiguous character beckons a comparison with biographies of other Black Africans in the Empire. After being baptized in the Free Imperial City of Lindau, Real was brought to the court of Duke Eberhard III of Württemberg in Stuttgart, where he served first as court servant (“Hofmohr” or “court Moor” in contemporary terminology) and later as trumpeter – one of the first Black court trumpeters in the Empire as far as is currently known. Yet while in this prestigious position, he became the victim of a violent attack that almost cost him his life. Walking home from a wine tavern during the night of November 11, 1669, he was attacked by four young men who severely wounded him by disfiguring his face. The criminal investigation of this assault fills over 200 pages of a file entitled “Tödliche Verwundung eines Mohren” (The Severe Injury of a Moor) and kept at the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart.