Abstract
The seemingly benevolent chimney-sweep literature written between 1785–1825 reflects the antiblack attitudes that permeated the Romantic period. Blackness in this body of literature suggests that whether sweeps are characterized as benign or threatening, they were reviled by reformers and protectors for being Black. Sweeps, this essay argues, became canvases for benevolent activists on which to project their racist anxieties about the transitory nature of Blackness. Such readings further enable us to see that fears of Blackness instantiate Britain's anxieties about its failure to produce a material atmosphere that secured neat distinctions between white and black bodies.
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