Essay Sample about Dido Elizabeth Belle

Dido Elizabeth Belle was born in 1761 and died on July 1804, in London, United Kingdom. Belle was enslaved from birth in the British West Indies and was the daughter of an enslaved black woman named Maria Belle, and a British military officer Sir John Lindsay. In 1765, Lindsay moved with Belle to England, where she lived with royals and eventually became a wealthy heiress. Later on, in 1779 a painter named “David Martin” painted the famous painting of Dido Belle and her cousin Elizabeth Murray showing that Dido’s skin color did not give her inferior status at Kenwood. In fact, shown in the painting; both Belle and her cousin are dressed in finery clothing which was commonly worn by upperclassmen. Also, Dido is not positioned in an amenable pose, as Black people typically were in paintings during that time period.

For most of her life, she was raised at Kenwood house. Despise the fact that it was not unheard of at the time for a wealthy British family to become legal guardians to an illegitimately born relative, it was abnormally rare for a child of mixed race, born to a former slave, not to be raised as a domestic worker. Dido received the same education as her cousin and lived within the same opulent walls. She slept every night in a four-poster bed in her own exquisitely decorated bedroom. She would also receive an allowance of £30 which would be several times the amount of the wages for servants, even though her cousin Elizabeth made £100 which was way more. Dido was also superintendent of Kenwood’s dairy and poultry yard, a common hobby for genteel women. Her daily activities however would have changed after the death of Lady Mansfield in 1784, and on the marriage in 1785 of her cousin Elizabeth.

In addition to the famous achievements made by Dido Belle; from 1756 to 1788, Dido’s uncle was Lord Chief Justice, the most powerful judge in England. It was a unique position to preside over several court cases that examined the legality of the slave trade. Despite that happening, Dido influenced great-uncle Lord Mansfield's opinions on the slave trade. In his summing up at the trial in 1772 he recorded slavery as ‘odious’, but as Lord Chief Justice he had to adhere to a strict reading of the law. Even though his point along the road was to abolish the slave trade forever, it didn’t end. Mansfield was aware of all that was happening, and in his will of 1782, he made sure to protect his niece’s rights, stating that Dido is a free woman. Overall, Belle earned the respect of her great uncle’s contemporaries for her intelligence and articulation. She was also praised for her ability to repeat some pieces of poetry with an admirable degree of elegance.

Later on in her life, Dido’s later life was comfortable but a middling status. When Lord Mansfield died in 1793, he left her an annuity of £100 and a lump sum of £500 (which in today's times it would be estimated to be £40,000). This sum would be way smaller than her cousin Elizabeth and was unsure if it was because of her race or illegitimate status. At that time, it was not really unusual for an illegitimate child to receive less financial support, but was still counted as a family member. Afterward, Dido married a steward (a senior servant) named John Davinier, originally from France, and the couple went on to have three sons and two of them being twins. When Dido’s death hit in 1804 only at the young age of 43, she was buried at St George Church burial ground in Tyburn; and her grave was moved due to redevelopment of the site in the 1960s. 

As a result, Dido Belle had a great impact on popular culture. Her life was chronicled in films, novels, and poetry. Even the portrait of her and her cousin, owned by the current Earl of Mansfield is an important tourist attraction. The painting inspired the 2013 film “Belle,” a speculative work about the aristocrat’s special life. Other works that included Dido were the plays “Let Justice Be Done” and “An African Cargo”; the musical “Fern Meets Dido”; and the novels “Family Likeness” and “Belle: The True Story of Dido Belle.” All of the stuff mentioned above, recorded information about Dido’s life has officially made her an enigmatic figure and the source of endless speculation. Dido definitely inspired many mixed people all over the world that even though you are mixed, you can still be some type of royalty no matter what.