Facts
James Somersett, an enslaved American, was purchased by Charles Stewart or Steuart, a Customs officer when he was in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, a British crown colony in North America. Stewart brought Somersett with him when he returned to England in 1769, but in 1771 the man escaped. After Somersett was recaptured in November, Stewart had him imprisoned on the ship Ann and Mary (Capt. John Knowles), bound for the British colony of Jamaica to be sold to a plantation for labour. Three people claiming to be Somersett's godparents from his baptism as a Christian in England: John Marlow, Thomas Walkin and Elizabeth Cade, made an application before the Court of King's Bench for a writ of habeas corpus. Captain Knowles was ordered to produce Somersett before the Court of King's Bench, which would determine whether his imprisonment was legal.
The Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Lord Mansfield, ordered a hearing for the following January. It was not until February 1772 that the case was heard. In the meantime, the case had attracted a great deal of attention in the press, and members of the public donated monies to fund lawyers for both sides of the argument. An abolitionist layman, Granville Sharp, who continually sought test cases against the legal justifications for slavery, was Somersett's real backer. When the case was heard, five advocates appeared for Somersett, speaking at three hearings between February and May. These lawyers included Francis Hargrave, a young lawyer who made his reputation with this, his first case.
Somersett's advocates argued that while colonial laws might permit slavery, neither the common law of England nor any law made by Parliament recognised the existence of slavery, and slavery was therefore illegal. The advocates also argued that English contract law did not allow for any person to enslave himself, nor could any contract be binding without the person's consent. The arguments focused on legal details rather than humanitarian principles. When the two lawyers for Charles Stewart put their case, they argued that property was paramount and that it would be dangerous to free all the black people in England.
Read more about this topic: Somerset's Case
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