angelophile | My current recommended read...

Black Ajax is the true story of the rise to fame and ultimate tragedy of Thomas Molineux, the American-born ex-slave who fought his way to freedom and became the first internationally famous black Heavyweight Champion in boxing history. In 1810, Molineaux, the "Black Ajax," fought and lost a legendary bout against Britain's champion Tom Cribb; in the re-match in 1811 Cribb again bested Molineaux. There was never a third encounter, but those two titanic battles set both Cribb and Molineaux "aloft and apart; it was a case of Cribb first, Molineaux second, and the rest nowhere."

Along the way, Molineux became the toast of the ton, was dressed by Beau Brummell, encouraged by the Prince of Wales and Lord Byron, welcomed in Gentleman Jackson’s exclusive boxing salon, and sought out not only by the most beautiful Cyprians but by more than one lady of Society. Cribb retired undefeated in 1822 -- the first superstar in the history of the sport. Molineaux died in 1818, a broken-down, drunken, prize-ring cast-off; his chief claims to fame today are the two celebrated fights with Cribb and the fact that he was the first (and, perhaps the best) in a long succession of great black heavyweight boxers.

Unfortunately - perhaps because of its historically accurate racist language - I'm not sure the novel is widely available in the US. It’s a pity because Molineux’s story - told with great sympathy and insight and astonishing attention to period detail - is an important chapter in African-American history.

The author is George MacDonald Fraser, author of The Pyrates, Mr. American and the Flashman series of historical novels. While humor featured heavily in these previous outings, (he's also the writer of Richard Lester's Three Musketeers films and Bond film Octopussy), here Fraser has adopted a more 'straight' approach to the story, calling on his staggeringly in depth understanding of international history. A journalist by trade, Fraser is also a notable historian and the Flashman papers employed the device of taking a figure from Tom Brown's Scooldays and imagining the rest of his life, sending him reeling from important events in Victorian history, such as the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Indian Mutiny, the American Civil War, the Battle of Little Bighorn, the Afghan Wars and much more.

The wealth of historical detail in these novels and the expansive footnotes has already established Fraser as an excellent historian and here he tells the story from a variety of viewpoints - some reliable, some unreliable - and ultimately lets the reader decide for himself the answer to several unanswered historical questions, including the greatest sporting mystery of all: Who really won the first Cribb-Molineux match? Fraser’s remarkable grasp of period slang and attitudes puts the average Regency romance writer to shame. From Buck’s "Corinthian" slang to the argot of the underworld to the jargon of the ring - all sound incredibly natural on the lips of Fraser’s characters and after a while you’ll be spoutin’ the lingo, too.

The most moving witnesses, however, are those members of the "Fancy," the British boxing and sporting establishment. These retired pugilists, trainers, instructors, managers, and promoters transform the story of Tom Molineaux into a drama with tragic dimensions.

Before the second fight with Cribb, former slave and pugilist Bill Richmond tells Molineaux that, even when black people are free, they "will always think like slaves until one of them wins . . . some thing which the white man believes belongs to him alone. The Championship of England is such a thing . . . and I tell you, when a black man wins it, he will have changed the world."

You don’t have to be boxing enthusiast to enjoy this novel. Fraser’s suspenseful accounts of the matches will have you grasping the ropes and cheering Molineux along. As always, Fraser is an incomparable story-teller who can make even a pacifist reader find a horrifying fascination with the bloody and violent details of the sport in those barbaric days before the Queensbury Rules.