Prue Axam calls herself the "whitest white girl." She grew up in Sydney's north-west, a place her family has lived for hundreds of years. In the lead up to Australia's bicentennial in 1988, the Axam family began tracing their family history, to see when they first arrived in the country.
"I remember finding it funny," Prue told The Feed.
Prue's mother and grandfather scoured records. In 1989, the family made a surprising discovery. They found that they are descended from two former African American slaves - John Martin and John Randall - who were among 12 people of African descent on the First Fleet when it arrived in Botany Bay.
"My grandfather who had started the search was not comfortable about the discovery and wasn't in a hurry to have anyone talk about it too much," she said.
Randall and Martin, like many of the Africans on the First Fleet, defected to the British forces during the American revolution. Some of the notable figures of African descent who arrived at Botany Bay included Black Caesar, who was Australia's first bushranger; John Williams, also known as 'Black Jack', who was a Kangaroo Island sealer.
While William Blue, also known as 'Billy Blue', was one of the most significant African settlers, he arrived later on the Third Fleet. He was the first ferryman on the Sydney Harbour and was appointed as a watchmen by NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie.
Solving the mystery of Prue's great-great grandmother
What prompted the search for Prue's ancestry wasn't only the country's bicentennial but an unanswered family mystery -- the story of Prue's great-great grandmother Emily Martin, also known as 'Old Fan'.
There had been speculation in the family that Old Fan was Indigenous, because of her darker skin tone. Descriptions of Old Fan were passed down the family, and Prue remembers being told she was a tall woman who would always wear a pair of gloves, long sleeves and skirts even in the middle of summer.
"It makes me feel very sad for her. She must have been boiling in those clothes. It's really that sad her history was a secret, a source of shame," she said.
Prue's mother discovered the story of their African ancestry from her trips to when she decided to investigate her family's history at Sydney's Mitchell Library. It provided some answers to what Prue says were family whispers about Old Fan.
A family dinner between Prue, her mother, father and younger brother. Source: Supplied
"That Old Fan's ancestry was African explained the difference of her skin colour but it would have seemed so unlikely given how hidden the history of the black convicts were," Prue said.
"We can only speculate what Old Fan knew herself and what she did or didn't tell her children. My mum believes Old Fan probably knew her family story but likely chose not to tell her son (my grandpa's father)."
The mystery of Old Fan's heritage was solved, and with it came a change to the Axam family lore that they had descended from free settlers.
Prue's family learned that Old Fan was the great granddaughter of African American convict John Martin, who married the daughter of another African American convict, John Randall. The Randall-Martin connection is estimated to have tens of thousands of descendants.
"For [mum] the real surprise was that the reality was so different from the family story that had been passed down," Prue said.
Who was John Randall?
The story of John Randall is a favourite of Brad Manera, a senior historian and curator at the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park. His name is believed to have come from his slave master in the American colonies. Manera says Randall served with the British Army's 63rd regiment, the Manchesters, but at the end of the American Revolution he was discharged, and living in England.
"Unemployment after every war is rife, and he ended up getting transported for picking a pocket in 1785, and in 1788 he found his way to New South Wales," Manera told The Feed.
Randall's military background helped him access a privileged position as one of the NSW Governors' gamekeepers -- people who were sent out to shoot kangaroos.
Historian Cassandra Pybus, author of 'Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers', told The Feed to be one of the governors gamekeepers, being a good shot was a prerequisite.
"So that's a very privileged position, they are terribly important because they supply the settlement with meat," Pybus said.
Randall wasn't only a good shot, he was also handy with a drum and pipe. In the early 1800s, he joined the New South Wales Corps as a drummer. He led the band that marched along Bridge Street on 26th January 1808 to Government House at the front of the NSW Corps, in a rowdy procession to arrest governor William Bligh.
"The thought of a six foot black man in a bright yellow uniform leading a band of drummers in front of 400 armed Redcoats up Bridge street in Sydney is just a delightful image," Manera said.
The American Revolution
Pybus says the American revolution is significant in the first settlement: she says most of the marines placed in Sydney and a lot of the convicts were at war together.
"[African American defectors] built this relationship with these young white soldiers, young white officers who were in the American revolution, and learned to become quite depended upon and understood how important these African American defectors were to the British cause," she said.
Pybus says the war created a shared experience, and played a part in cementing relationships. She uses the example of Billy Blue (William Blue) and governor Lachlan Macquarie: he arrived destitute and later became a benefactor of Macquarie.
Billy Blue arrived in Sydney in 1801, having been born in New York, served during the American War of Independence and was arrested in London for theft while in a lowly paid job on the Thames. Released after serving his seven year sentence, he became friendly with Governor Macquarie.
A portrait of William Blue (Billy Blue). Source: The NSW State Library
"They may not have known one another, but they were at the same battle. Lachlan Macquarie was like a 14-year-old boy at the time, so they've got stories, Billy Blue's got stories to tell him about very formative and brutal experiences," Pybus said.
Macquarie gave him the role of harbour watchman in 1811, and provided him with a large amount of land on Sydney's North Shore. Blues Point, one of the best vantage points of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, was named after this African American convict.
Was 'Black Caesar' Australia's first bushranger?
Black Caesar (John Caesar) arrived in Botany bay on the First Fleet in 1788. He was a runaway slave who fought with British forces in the American revolution, and in the early days of settlement he was a well regarded labourer, according to Pybus.
"Until he got so low that he was forced to kind of steal in order to get enough to eat because he was much bigger and stronger than almost anybody else in the settlement, and he was required to do much more heavy work because of that," Pybus said.
When he was caught for theft, he was sent to Garden Island in Sydney Harbour as punishment. While there, he managed to steal a boat and rations and go off into the bush -- becoming Australia's first bushranger.
"In fact, there's a whole African tradition that this is based on called 'marronage' - being a maroon. These are the names that were given to runaway slaves in the Americas. And they would do exactly what he does and exactly what bushrangers do, and that's where it comes from, it doesn't come out of Ireland at all. It actually comes out of the slave societies of the Americas. But that's not the story that Australians want to tell themselves," Pybus said.
An illustration of John Caesar (Black Caesar) in the Sunday Truth from 1934. Source: Trove
Why isn't the history of African convicts widely known?
Pybus is quite direct, "because Australia's a racist society, and there was a concerted effort to wipe out non-Europeans from Australia's history."
"Billy Blue is the best example. I mean, by the time we get into the 1930s the story about Billy Blue is still around because you can't ignore him," Pybus said.
"So who was this Billy Blue who used to be the ferryman on the harbor? Well, they tell stories about Billy Blue but what they don't say is that he was black -- that's not part of the story."
For Prue Axam, it's been a welcome revelation. Prue lived around Pennant Hills in Sydney until the turn of the millennium, a place she learned was where her ancestor John Martin settled in 1810.
Prue alongside her grandfather. Source: Supplied
"White Australia's got a short history but I was growing up not far from where my African ancestor was farming nearly 200 years earlier," Prue said.
"I'm glad for example that my daughter can tell the stories of her various ancestors' migrations without the stigma that kept Old Fan quiet."
This article was originally published on April 28, 2020.
