Black Britain, Sholto the Douglas, Niger Val Dubh

McRitchie gives the names of many of these families (Moorish) whose are quite celebrated in English history. One of these is the aristocratic Douglas family, said to be one of the ancestors of the present royal family of Britain. A British authority, J.A. Ringrose, explains about the founder of this family:

Douglas family Crest

About the year 770 AD, in the reign of Salvathius, King of the Scots, Donald Bane of the Western Isles having invaded Scotland and routed the royal army, a man of rank and figure came seasonably with his followers to the King's assistance.

He renewed the battle and obtained a complete victory over the invader. The king being anxious to see the man who had done him such signal service, he was pointed out to him by his colour, or complexion in Gaelic language -sholto-du-glash-" behold the black or swarthy coloured man" from which he obtained the name Sholto the Douglas.

McRitchie further states that the most revealing evidence of the Moorish origin of these noble families are "the thick-lipped Moors" on their coat-of­ arms. Many of these families still carry the name Moore. Barry's Encyclope­dia Heraldica notes on its pages that "Moor's head is the heraldic term for the heads of a black or negro man."

McRitchie contends that the racial origin of these notable families stems from the fact that there were black peoples (Moors or Silure) domiciled in Scotland as early as the ninth and tenth centuries.

Any comprehensive account of the African presence in early Europe should include England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Scandinavia. The history and legends of Scotland confirm the existence of "purely Black people." We see one of them in the person of Kenneth the Niger. During the tenth century Kenneth the Niger ruled over three provinces in the Scottish Highlands.

The historical and literary traditions of Wales reflect similar beliefs. According to Gwyn Jones (perhaps the world's leading authority on the subject), to the Welsh chroniclers, "The Danes coming in by way of England and the Norwegians by way of Ireland were pretty well all black: Black Gentiles, Black Norsemen, and Black Host." There is also strong reason to suggest an African presence in ancient Ireland.

We have, for example, the legends of the mysterious "African sea-rovers, the Fomorians, who had a stronghold on Torrey Island, off the Northwest Coast." The Fomorians, shrouded deep in mist, came to be regarded as the sinister forces in Irish mythology. Moors also dominated the British Isles at one point in history. The archaeologist and writer David McRitchie declared that the Moors dominated Scotland as late as the time of the Saxon Kings.

He stated with scholarly authority: So late as the tenth century three of these provinces [of Scotland] were wholly black and the supreme ruler of these became for a time the paramount king of transmarine Scotland.
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We see one of the black people ­- the Moors of the Romans - in the person of a King of Alban of the tenth century. History knows him as Kenneth, sometimes as Dubh and as Niger.

We know as a historic fact that a Niger Val Dubh has lived and reigned over certain black divisions of our islands and probably white divisions also, and that a race known as the "Sons of the Black" succeeded him in history.

Representation of Black Saracen giant in medieval literature begin with Vernagu found in the Pseudo Turpin Chronicle of Charlemagne.

Dated to the fourteenth century, the Roland and Vernagu describe a duel between the black as pitch, Saracen Vernagu, and the Christian knight Roland. Another towering figure was Alagolfare the Ethiopian giant of the Sowdone of Babylone,who’s "skin was black and hard."