The Great Composer Quiz – September 23, 2020, BLM Edition

Time’s up, pencils down, the Great Composer who put his money into shipping Black Africans into slavery, via the Royal Africa Company, and who evidentially also used his influence as leader of the Royal Academy of Music Orchetra to recruit more than a third of the RAM board to join him in investing in the profitable slave industry.

The answer is George Frideric Handel. This disturbing fact was first revealed by the scholar David Hunter in his 2015 book The Lives of George Frideric Handel, after he discovered in the National Archives Handel’s name prominently displayed on official documents and sales records of the Royal Africa Company, one of two official slave trading organizations in Britain. It gives new meaning to verses such as this from Messiah…

“For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”

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