In the portraits of the ladies who belonged to that dissolute court managed by Louis XIV of France, there often appears the dark and ambiguous figure of a black dwarf. In an article published by the Messenger, famed Negro periodical, one J. A. Rogers offers a by no means unlikely explanation of the pictorial presence of these creatures.
It is a fact that an African potentate presented Queen Maria Theresa, the consort of Louis, with a Negro dwarf. So fond of the monstrous little character did the Queen become, that her ladies too acquired dwarfs. Soon it became a fashion. The affection...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
