Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. Last week, I had the opportunity to watch Steven Knight’s historical drama series, A Thousand Blows. It follows Hezekiah Moscow, portrayed by Malachi Kirby, a spirited young Jamaican who comes to London aspiring to be a lion tamer but ultimately finds himself in the boxing ring. David Olusoga, a BAFTA-winning filmmaker and historian who is one of the series’ executive producers, shares insights about the real Hezekiah Moscow and the challenges of uncovering the history of Black lives in 19th-century London. This will follow our weekly roundup.
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In discussing Hezekiah Moscow’s life, David Olusoga, who is also a board member of the Scott Trust, which oversees the Guardian, highlights the expertise of boxing and wrestling historian Sarah Elizabeth Cox. Her research, shared on her blog, Grappling With History, informed the portrayal of Moscow in A Thousand Blows while shedding light on his life. Moscow, who was born around 1862, began as a “traveller” from the West Indies before taking on the role of a lion tamer and performer at an east London aquarium, though he later faced accusations from the RSPCA for allegedly “cruelly mistreating” four bears. As Cox indicates, these claims were likely unfounded and malice-driven, as the accuser had previously faced a “summons for perjury for fabricating evidence against Moscow and the aquarium.”
From May 1882, Moscow began to make regular appearances in sports publications under his boxing moniker, Ching Hook, a name most likely tied to racist connotations derived from his appearance. However, by 1892, his name vanished from these reports. Other than a record of his marriage and daughter, the details of his later life remain scarce, with no records found pertaining to his death, cremation, or obituaries. Cox notes that Moscow seemingly “vanished without a trace,” although with her ongoing work on a book about boxing history, we can hope for further revelations.
Reflecting on this brief historical overview, Olusoga states: “Hezekiah Moscow’s narrative exemplifies the fragmented biographies typical of Black Victorians; we get glimpses of detail followed by long stretches of obscurity. This is immensely frustrating but mirrors the Black experience of the 18th and 19th centuries. Individuals enter the historical record – we have newspaper clippings, photographs – and then they fade from view. All too often, we are left uncertain about their lives in later years.” However, this is where historical drama holds its significance, illustrating how it can play a crucial role in re-establishing Black narratives in public consciousness. The creative license inherent in such works is invaluable. While historians may struggle to piece together a complete biography of figures like Moscow, drama has the capacity to evoke lives that reflect the known realities of their time.
Navigating a hyper-globalized landscape
While the precise origins of Moscow remain elusive, the series builds his identity using historical references. He is characterized as Jamaican, shaped by his childhood experience witnessing the violent repression of the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion. The character’s fluency in Chinese, surprising hotelier Mr. Lao, is attributed to his grandmother. This detail was conceived to address the racist nickname Ching Hook, speculating on possible Chinese ancestry for Moscow. “Chinese laborers were sent to Jamaica, which is thought to be his point of origin,” Olusoga explains. “While most of these ‘Coolies’ worked in Guyana or Trinidad, a few came to Jamaica, hence the possibility of mixed Chinese descent around the time of his birth.”
Regardless of the exact West Indian country he originated from, Moscow arrived in London at a time when the city was nearing the peak of its influence, according to Olusoga. “In the 1880s, the population was around 5 million, approaching 6 million. It was the world’s largest city, bustling as a port hub where dockworkers and sailors from various countries converged.” London, with its extensive maritime connections, was the heart of the most expansive empire ever known and a bustling center of trade. Accordingly, Moscow and the other personalities in A Thousand Blows are portrayed within a “hyper-globalized world” where sailors from West Africa and the Caribbean mingled with Irish and Jewish migrants escaping from imperial Russian pogroms. Olusoga cites a parliamentary discussion recorded in Hansard in February 1893, where an MP complains about the prevalence of foreign languages in London’s East End, lamenting “sonic streets you may traverse and hardly realize you’re in England” – an eerily familiar rhetoric in today’s context.
The domain of performance
In the 1880s, boxing epitomized the working-class sport, and Olusoga contends that it’s a natural realm for Moscow to be drawn into. The legacy of late 18th and early 19th-century Black boxers such as Bill Richmond and Tom Molineaux, born into slavery in the United States and celebrated as sporting icons in Britain, loomed large during this time. Boxing represented a platform where impoverished men of diverse backgrounds could, through skill and fortuitous circumstances, aspire to improve their livelihoods. “It embodies chance, skill, danger, and potential for extraordinary reward. Boxing isn’t a pursuit for middle-class individuals due to its inherent risks,” Olusoga notes. Class significantly influences the depiction of boxing in Moscow’s era, presenting a sport that allowed marginalized groups from across the globe to pursue a better existence inside the ring.
However, it’s crucial to acknowledge that many Black men were drawn to boxing due to their frequent relegation to performance roles in Britain. Olusoga explains that late-Victorian London highly valued the “exoticism and rarity” of Black individuals, leading to their presence on stage and as street entertainers. African American music was particularly in vogue: “The Fisk Jubilee Singers from Tennessee and the Bohee Brothers – African Americans came to London to teach people to play the banjo, igniting a banjo craze. Black individuals were visible on stage, singing on the streets, and competing in the ring. In many ways, the boxing arena became just another platform where their unique attributes were showcased.” This theme is illustrated in A Thousand Blows during a Gilded-Age gathering, where a Black acrobat captivates the audience with his performance.
While the historical accounts of Moscow’s life, and those of many Black Victorians, are limited, dramas like A Thousand Blows kindle hope that their stories will not fade into obscurity, even if the entirety of their lives remains elusive. “For the first time since the 1880s, the name Hezekiah Moscow appears in print,” Olusoga notes. “Isn’t it remarkable that this forgotten individual, whose life details may forever stay unknown, is once again being discussed in London?”
A Thousand Blows is available for streaming on Disney+ in the UK, Ireland, and select locations, as well as on Hulu in the United States. Black History for Every Day of the Year authored by David Olusoga, Yinka Olusoga, and Kemi Olusoga is released by Pan Macmillan.
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The post Headline: Reviving Shadows: The Remarkable Journey of Hezekiah Moscow from Lion Tamer to Boxing Icon in a World of Forgotten Black Histories first appeared on London.
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Author : London News
Publish date : 2025-02-27 10:40:04
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