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America’s first vampire was Black: How a gothic story from the 1800s advocated for emancipation of slaves
Posted by TheConversation | Feb 1, 2021 | Syndicated
By Sam George,
Associate Professor of Research, University of Hertfordshire
In April of 1819, a London periodical, the “New Monthly Magazine,” published “The Vampyre: A Tale by Lord Byron.” Notice of its publication quickly appeared in papers in the United States.
Byron was at the time enjoying remarkable popularity and this new tale, supposedly by the famous poet, caused a sensation as did its reprintings in Boston’s Atheneum (15 June) and Baltimore’s Robinson’s Magazine (26 June). The Vampyre did away with the East European peasant vampire of old. It took this monster out of the forests, gave him an aristocratic lineage and placed him into the drawing rooms of Romantic-era England. It was the first sustained fictional treatment of the vampire and completely recast the folklore and mythology on which it drew.