Historian Fara Dabhoiwala Unravels Mysteries from the 18th Century

Since 1928, an 18th-century portrait of a Black man has been hanging in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, but its meaning puzzled scholars. Why would someone in the 1700s paint a Black man who is dressed as a gentleman and is examining a book related to Isaac Newton?

Historian Fara Dabhoiwala believes he has solved the mystery. A lecturer in Princeton’s history department, Dabhoiwala became fascinated with the painting’s subject, a Black Jamaican polymath named Francis Williams. Dabhoiwala’s “single-minded, obsessive pursuit” of finding out more during the pandemic led him to figure out who painted the work and when, and conclude that, contrary to speculation by scholars, the painting was not a satire but rather “the earliest self-representation in Western art of an identifiable, named Black person as an intellectual.”

Dabhoiwala, who is of Indian descent, was born in England and educated in Europe. He was a professor at Oxford for 20 years before moving to the United States in 2016, when he began teaching at Princeton. “Growing up in different cultures and having access to the way people think differently has always helped me remember that historical sources are never neutral; they are shaped by the outlook of those who wrote them.”

Quick Facts

Title
Senior research scholar and lecturer with the rank of professor in the history department

Time at Princeton
9 years

Recent Class
Histories of Language and Communication 

Dabhoiwala’s Research: A Sampling

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Mikel Casal

Inherent Irony 

Dabhoiwala’s study of the 18th-century figure Francis Williams grew from an irony: The richest contemporary sources of information about Williams were penned by white supremacists, who wrote about him while arguing that Black people were inherently inferior. They took aim at Williams, a rich gentleman scholar who probably studied at the University of Cambridge, because he was “the most well-known Black person in the Atlantic world in his lifetime,” says Dabhoiwala, who is writing the first-ever biography of Williams. It is critical to study historical figures such as Williams, he points out, because they show us “why the world is how it is today, and the many blind spots and injustices in what we take for granted.”

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Mikel Casal

A Story of Speech

Dabhoiwala’s forthcoming book, What Is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea, explores why the concept of free speech is so fraught. “Free speech is a fundamental Western value. Nonetheless, we can never agree on what it means and where its limits should lie,” he says. Examining the purpose of different kinds of speech, Dabhoiwala argues, is one essential question. While it’s crucial for speech in the political sphere to not be debased by lies and misinformation, literal truth and accuracy are not the most important concern when defining freedom of expression for art or literature, he points out. “Free speech is often weaponized, and we need better tools for thinking about it,” he says. What Is Free Speech? will be published in August.

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Mikel Casal

Intimate Interdictions

For much of human history, Western societies enforced strict rules around sexual behavior. All sex outside of marriage was illegal. In New England in the 1650s, people were executed for adultery. But attitudes changed dramatically in the 18th century, Dabhoiwala points out in his 2012 book The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution. “There is a huge change, and people begin believing that consenting adults have the right to do what they like with their bodies,” he says. The book traces how these revolutionary ideas took shape, drawing from art, literature, philosophy, and the lives of individuals, and how these concepts continue to shape the world today.