The Black Man's Lament or, How to Make Sugar

Amelia Alderson, an only child, was born on the 12th November 1769 in Norwich, England. After the death of her mother on New Year's Eve 1784 she became her father's housekeeper and hostess. The young Amelia was energetic, attractive, and an admirer of fashion. She spent much of her youth writing poetry and plays and putting on local amateur theatricals. At 18 she had published anonymously 'The Dangers of Coquetry'. Amelia married in the spring of 1798 to the artist John Opie at the Church of St Marylebone, in Westminster, and together they lived in Berners Street where Amelia was already living. Her next novel in 1801 'Father and Daughter', was very popular even though it dealt with such themes as illegitimacy, a socially difficult subject for its times. From this point on published works were far more regular. The following year her volume 'Poems' appeared and was again very popular. Novels continued to flow and she never once abandoned her social activism and her call for better trea