James Somersett

James Somerset or Somersett was a young African American slave who was purchased by Charles Stuart in Virginia in 1749. Stuart was involved in British government service and travelled as part of his duties accompanied by Somersett, who at the time did not have a first name.

In 1769, Stuart along with Somersett travelled to England. While in England, Somersett met and became involved with people associated with the anti-slavery movement in England including the well known activist Granville Sharp. During this period, Somersett was christened with the name James in a church ceremony.

In 1771, Somersett ran away. Stuart posted a reward and Somersett was recaptured. Stuart then had Somersett put on board a ship bound for Jamaica where Somersett was to be sold. Somerset's god-parents from the christening ceremony discovered Somerset's condition and location. Going before the King's Bench, they obtained a writ of habeas corpus requiring the ship's captain to produce Somersett in court, which was done.

By this time in England, the general public had a poor opinion of the institution of slavery and the time was ripe for a decision to be forced as to whether slaves in England were in fact free. Somersett sued for his freedom, supported by anti-slavery groups, from Stuart, supported by planters from the West Indies who were interested in continuing the practice of slavery, in a trial before the King's Bench, the highest court in England.

In Somersett's Case, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Lord Mansfield, issued a judgment which concluded:

"...The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political; but only positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasion, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory: it's so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from a decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged."

While Somersett's case provided legal precedent that the state of slavery was unlawful in England itself, serfdom having died out there centuries before, it did not end British participation in the slave trade or slavery in other parts of the British Empire. It was not until 1807 that Parliament decided to suppress the African slave trade and slavery continued to exist in various parts of the British Empire in different forms; the abolition of plantation slavery using transported Africans started in the Caribbean, Cape of Good Hope and Mauritius under Slavery Abolition Act 1833. However, because of the Somersett case, there has never been a law passed to make slavery illegal in Britain – it has never been legal. However, as Section IV of the 1833 Act freed any slave brought into the United Kingdom with the consent of the owner, it had the practical effect of statutorily abolishing slavery in the United Kingdom.

References

• Blumrosen, Alfred W., Blumrosen, Ruth G. Slave nation: how slavery united the colonies and sparked the American Revolution. Sourcebooks, 2005.
• Jerome Nadelhaft. "The Somersett Case and Slavery: Myth, Reality, and Repercussions," Journal of Negro History, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Jul., 1966), pp. 193–208 online at JSTOR
• Wise, Steven M.Though the Heavens May Fall, Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA, 2005.
• The Newsworthy Somersett Case: Repercussions in Virginia
• Ruth Paley, After Somerset: Mansfield, slavery and the law in England, 1772–1830, in Law, Crime and English Society, 1660–1830, ed Norma Landau (Cambridge University Press)

Dramatic recreations

• Let Justice Be Done Mixed Blessings Theatre Group. 2008 play written for the Bicentenary of the Abolition of Slavery in the UK, with mention of the Somerset Ruling which kickstarted the beginning of the end of slavery in the British Isles.

External links

• Imperial Politics and English Law: The Many Contexts of Somerset by Ruth Paley, from the Law and History Review

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