Billy Waters is dancing : or, how a Black sailor found fame in Regency Britain /Mary L. Shannon.

"Every child in Regency London knew Billy Waters, the celebrated 'King of the Beggars'. Likely born into enslavement in 1770s New York, he became a sailor in the British Royal Navy. But when he lost his leg in a fall from the rigging, the irrepressible Waters created a new role for himself: he became London's most famous street performer. His extravagantly costumed image blazed across the stage and in print, and his legend would live on for decades. But for all his contemporary renown, Waters died destitute in 1823. Mary L. Shannon's biography draws together surviving traces of Waters' life, bringing us as close as possible to the historical figure. Considering Waters' influence on the London stage, his appearances in visual art, and connections with writing by Douglass, Dickens, and Thackeray, Shannon asks what it meant to find fame in nineteenth-century popular culture. This is a vital attempt to recover an individual from historical obscurity - and a fascinating exploration of Black lives in the Regency metropolis."--Provided by the publisher.