WI: African settlement in England in early modern era?

I've been reading 1493 recently, and one interesting thing I discovered, which I didn't know before, is much of Southeast England was malarial between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Basically when they drained the tidal regions of England at the beginning of this period, they left behind stagnant, brackish pools which mosquito absolutely loved. The slightly less deadly, more cold-tolerant version of Malaria quickly took root. The region had a higher death rate than birth rate for centuries, until in the Victorian era they finally drained the marshes properly.

The variant of Malaria which was endemic was one to which 97% of Africans are immune to. This is different from the malaria species in Africa, which is what the sickle-cell mutation imperfectly protects against.

Regardless, it's pretty clear that if Africans were brought into rural Southeastern England, unlike the white population, they would be completely resistant. Even if they initially came in small numbers the number of children surviving to adulthood could be far, far higher, meaning over time African-descended people would proliferate in the bottom lands.

A possible complication is Vitamin D deficiency, which causes rickets. Rickets was already a problem in England, and given their much darker skin, Africans would be disproportionately likely to suffer from rickets provided they had the same diet as whites in the same area, and didn't spend more time outdoors. However, this alone probably isn't enough to make them unfit, given the huge death rate malaria caused.

Regardless, is there some plausible POD to get Africans into Southeast England in large numbers? I don't think chattel slavery would go over big there, but all you'd need was someone to import a small population (slave or free) notice how well they did compared to natives, and then the ball would get rolling, similar to what happened in Virginia, when it was noted Africans were much less liable to die than indentured servants from Scotland.

Maybe loyalist freed slaves from the American colonies are permitted to move to England after the American Revolution?

pa_dutch said:

Maybe loyalist freed slaves from the American colonies are permitted to move to England after the American Revolution?

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Not impossible, tho improbable. Some did end up in Canada. I recall reading about at least one ship load that were sold into slavery in the Carribiean . Perhaps if those several ship loads had found their way to the British Isles instead.

Another mechanism could come earlier, with African immigrants from ships crews collecting in farming villiages in this region, vs the "human cesspool of London" (Doyle?).

A third possibility reaches bach to Classical Age. The Romans refered to western Britain as 'Britainia Primus'. This area which included modern Wales & Cornwall had due to its Tin mines a connection with the Mediterranean reaching back to pre Roman time. ...if the Romans had settled one or more group of African legionares or auxillaries in Britania Primus.

It wouldn't surprise me if that had been Roman era African settlements, but in effect that population would still be one island of Africans amongst a sea of Europeans and eventually would likely end up looking like their neighbours.

I know there was a regiment of African archers based in south shields on the Hadrians wall,so maybe you could get a longer term settlement but the climate doesn't help.

Julius Vogel said:

It would surprise me if that had been Roman era African settlements, but in effect that population would still be one island of Africans amongst a sea of Europeans and eventually would likely end up looking like their neighbours.

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If Sub-Saharan Africans were brought in that early, the result would probably be by the 16th century tons of "white" people would have the Duffy antigen (which protects against the common strain of Malaria), and people in Southeast England would look pretty much white but naturally evolve Malaria resistance.

Which in and of itself is an interesting POD, because it would mean English mortality rates in the Southern colonies wouldn't be quite as terrible as IOTL, probably weakening the establishment of slavery somewhat.