"The sensational true tale that inspired the motion picture Belle (2013) starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson and Miranda Richardson -- a stunning story of the first mixed-race girl introduced to high society England and raised as a lady. Dido Elizabeth Belle was the illegitimate daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay of the Royal Navy and the enslaved biracial African-American woman Maria Belle; Dido was sent to live in the household of William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, one of the most powerful men of the time and a leading opponent of slavery -- in his capacity of Lord Chief Justice he was ruling on cases affecting the legitimacy of the whole slave trade. Growing up in his lavish estate, Dido was raised as a sister and companion to her white cousin, Elizabeth. When a joint portrait of the girls, commissioned by Mansfield, was unveiled, eighteenth-century England was shocked to see a Black woman and white woman depicted as equals. Inspired by the painting, Belle vividly brings to life this extraordinary woman caught between two worlds, and illuminates the great civil rights question of her age: the fight to end slavery"--Provided by publisher.

"First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by William Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers"--Title page verso. "The true story behind the movie"--Cover.

The Girl in the Picture -- The Captain -- The Slave -- The White Stuff -- "Silver-Tongued Murray" -- The Adopted Daughters -- Black London -- Mansfield the Moderniser -- Enter Granville Sharp -- The Somerset Ruling -- The Merchant of Liverpool -- A Riot in Bloomsbury -- A Visitor from Boston -- The Zong Massacre -- Gregson v. Gilbert -- Changes at Kenwood -- The Anti-Saccharites -- Mrs. John Davinier.