A Troublesome Disorder: Being an Account of an Interview With Master Francis Barber, Servant of the Late Doctor Samuel Johnson

Few other black men in the eighteenth century were as fortunate as Frank Barber. Taken in childhood from a Jamaican plantation to owner Colonel Bathursts English residence, his life was very different from that of the brothers and sisters he left behind.When Bathurst died, his son suggested Frank as a companion and servant to his friend Doctor Samuel Johnson, the great essayist and dictionary compiler, who had recently lost his wife.Franks duties in Johnsons various households were never onerous, and Johnson expended both time and money on the boys education. When the Doctor died, he even left the bulk of his estate to Barber.Yet, for all the kindness and benevolence shown to him, Frank Barber was no less a slave at the end of his life than he had been at the first. Whatever possessions and freedoms might be heaped upon him, only by independent action could he hope really to get the better of the troublesome disorder that oppressed him. DAVE RANDLE is a member of The Johnson Society and the author of a number of books of both history and fiction. Here he has combined the two disciplines to deliver an examination of Barbers sketchily recorded life and motives that is as factually accurate as it is readable and entertaining.