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Granville Sharp
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==Abolitionism== Sharp is best known for his untiring efforts for the [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition of slavery]], although he was involved in many other causes, fired by a dislike of any social or legal injustice. ===Sharp's first involvement: Jonathan Strong=== Sharp's brother William held a regular surgery for the local poor at his surgery at Mincing Lane, and one day in 1765 when Sharp was visiting, he met [[Jonathan Strong (Barbadian)|Jonathan Strong]]. Strong was a young black slave from Barbados who had been badly beaten by his master, David Lisle, a lawyer, with a pistol to the head. This left him close to blindness and as a result he had been cast out into the street as useless.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Fisher|first=Ruth Anna|date=1943|title=Granville Sharp and Lord Mansfield|journal=The Journal of Negro History|volume=28|issue=4|pages=381β389|doi=10.2307/2714946|jstor=2714946|s2cid=149909453}}</ref> Sharp and his brother tended to his injuries and had him admitted to [[Barts Hospital]], where his injuries were so bad they necessitated a four-month stay. The Sharps paid for his treatment and, when he was fit enough, found him employment as an errand runner with a [[Quaker]] apothecary friend of theirs.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|date=1813|title=Account of the Late Granville Sharp., Esq. a Distinguished Patriot and Philanthropist|journal=The Belfast Monthly Magazine|volume=11|issue=62|pages=209β219|jstor=30074593}}</ref> In 1767, Lisle saw Strong in the street and planned to sell him to a Jamaica planter named James Kerr for Β£30. Two slave catchers captured Strong with the intention to ship him to the Caribbean where he would work on Kerr's plantation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_22.html |title=Granville Sharp (1735-1813): The Civil Servant |website=The Abolition Project |access-date=23 January 2019 |archive-date=2 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202142822/http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_22.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Strong was able to get word to Sharp, who went directly to the Lord Mayor who in turn convened those laying claim to Strong. In court, Macbean, Kerr's attorney, produced the bill of sales from when Lisle sold Strong to Kerr. That was not enough to convince the Lord Mayor because Strong was imprisoned without clear cause, and so he liberated Strong. Afterwards, a West India Captain named David Laird grabbed Jonathan Strong's arm and claimed he would take him as James Kerr's property. Sharp, at the suggestion of Thomas Beech, the Coroner of London, threatened to charge Laird with assault should he attempt to take Strong by force. Laird let go of Strong and everyone who had been summoned departed without further dispute.<ref name=":0" /> Afterwards, David Laird instituted a court action against Sharp claiming Β£200 damages for taking their property, and Lisle challenged Sharp to a duelβSharp told Lisle that he could expect satisfaction from the law. Sharp consulted lawyers and found that as the law stood it favoured the master's rights to his slaves as property: that a slave remained in law the chattel of his master even on English soil. Sharp said "he could not believe the law of England was really so injurious to [[Natural and legal rights|natural rights]]." He spent the next two years in study of English law, especially where it applied to the liberty of the individual. Lisle disappeared from the records early, but Kerr persisted with his suit through eight legal terms before it was dismissed, and Kerr was ordered to pay substantial damages for wasting the court's time. Jonathan Strong was free, even if the law had not been changed, but he only lived for five years as a free man, dying at 25.<ref name=Sheppard/> ===Increasing involvement=== [[File:William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield]]]] The Strong case made a name for Sharp as the "protector of the Negro"{{Citation needed|date=November 2018}} and he was approached by two more slaves, although in both cases (''Hylas v Newton'' and ''[[Slavery at common law#R v Stapylton|R v Stapylton]]'') the results were unsatisfactory, and it became plain that the judiciary β and [[William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield|Lord Mansfield]], the Chief Justice of the King's Bench (the leading judge of the day) in particular β was trying very hard ''not'' to decide the issue. By this time, Great Britain controlled the largest share in the [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]], and the [[triangular trade]] based on slavery was important to the [[Economy of the United Kingdom|British economy]]. In 1769 Sharp published ''A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery ...'', the first tract in England attacking slavery. Within it, he argues that "the laws of nature" grant equality to all humans regardless of any artificial laws imposed by society. He also condemns slave contracts because the liberty of a man cannot be matched in value by anything.<ref name=":1" /> Sharp's work attracted the attention of [[James Oglethorpe]], who had long been concerned with slavery as a moral issue. The two men remained close until Oglethorpe's death in 1785.<ref>Wilson, Thomas. ''The Oglethorpe Plan'' (Epilogue). Charlottesville, Va: University of Virginia Press, 2012.</ref> === ''[[Somerset v Stewart]]'' === (Also called [[Somersett's case]].) On 13 January 1772, Sharp was visited and asked for help by James Somerset, an indigenous person of Africa who had been brought to America to be sold in the Colony of Virginia. He was then taken to England with his master Charles Stewart in 1769, where he was able to run away in October 1771. After evading slave hunters employed by Stewart for 56 days, Somerset had been caught and put in the slave ship Ann and Mary, to be taken to Jamaica and sold.<ref name=":0" /> This was the perfect case for Sharp because, unlike the previous cases, this was a question of lawful slavery rather than of ownership. Three Londoners had applied to [[Lord Mansfield]] for a writ of [[habeas corpus]], which had been granted, with Somerset having to appear at a hearing on 24 January 1772. Members of the public responded to Somerset's plight by sending money to pay for his lawyers (who in the event all gave their services ''[[pro bono publico]]''), while Stewart's costs were met by the West Indian planters and merchants. Having studied English law for several years by this point, Sharp called on his now-formidable knowledge of the law regarding individual liberty and briefed Somerset's lawyers.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|date=1980|first=Charles R. |last=Ritcheson|title=Robert E. Toohey. ''Liberty and Empire: British Radical Solutions to the American Problem, 1774β1776''. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. 1978. Pp. xiv, 210. $13.00|journal=The American Historical Review|doi=10.1086/ahr/85.1.122-a|issn=1937-5239|pages=122β123|volume=85 |issue=1}}</ref> Mansfield's deliberate procrastination stretched [[Somerset's Case]] over six hearings from January to May, and he finally delivered his judgment on 22 June 1772. It was a clear victory for Somerset, Sharp and the lawyers who acted for Somerset. Mansfield acknowledged that English law did not allow slavery, and only a new Act of Parliament ("[[positive law]]") could bring it into legality. However, the verdict in the case is often misunderstood to mean the end of slavery in England. It was no such thing: it dealt only with the question of the forcible sending of someone overseas into bondage; a slave becomes free the moment they set foot on English territory. It was one of the most significant achievements in the campaign to abolish slavery throughout the world, more for its effect than for its actual legal weight.<ref name=Sheppard/> ===The ''Zong'' massacre=== In 1781 the crew of the over-capacity slaver ship ''[[Zong massacre|Zong]]'' massacred an estimated 132<ref>The exact number of deaths is unknown, but First Mate James Kelsall later said that "the outside number of drowned amounted to 142 in the whole" {{Cite journal | last1 = Lewis | first1 = Andrew | title = Martin Dockray and the ''Zong'': A Tribute in the Form of a Chronology | doi = 10.1080/01440360701698551 | journal = Journal of Legal History | volume = 28 | issue = 3 | pages = 357β370| year = 2007| s2cid = 144811837 }}</ref> slaves by tossing them overboard; an additional ten slaves threw themselves overboard in defiance or despair and over sixty people had perished through neglect, injuries, disease and overcrowding. The ''Zong'''s crew had mis-navigated her course and overestimated water supplies; according to the [[maritime law]] notion of [[general average]], cargo purposely jettisoned at sea to save the remainder was eligible for insurance compensation. It was reasoned that as the slaves were cargo, the ship's owners would be entitled to the Β£30 a head compensation for their loss if thrown overboard: were the slaves to die on land or at sea of so-called "natural" causes, no compensation would be forthcoming.<ref name=Sheppard/> The ship's owners, a syndicate of merchants based in [[Liverpool]], filed their insurance claim; the insurers disputed it. In this first case the court found for the owners. The insurers appealed. Sharp was visited on 19 March 1783 by [[Olaudah Equiano]], a famous freed slave and later to be the author of a successful autobiography, who told him of the horrific events aboard the ''Zong''. Sharp immediately became involved in the court case, facing his old adversary over slave trade matters, the [[Solicitor General for England and Wales]], [[John Lee (Attorney-General)|John Lee]]. Lee notoriously declared that "the case was the same as if assets had been thrown overboard", and that a master could drown slaves without "a surmise of impropriety". The judge ruled that the ''Zong'''s owners could not claim insurance on the slaves: the lack of sufficient water demonstrated that the cargo had been badly managed. However, no officers or crew were charged or prosecuted for the deliberate killing of the slaves, and Sharp's attempts to mount a prosecution for murder never got off the ground.<ref name=Sheppard/> ===The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade=== [[File:Benjamin Rush.png|thumb|Founding Father Benjamin Rush]] Sharp was not completely alone at the beginning of the struggle: the Quakers, especially in America, were committed abolitionists. Sharp had a long and fruitful correspondence with [[Anthony Benezet]], a Quaker abolitionist in [[Pennsylvania]]. However, the Quakers were a marginal group in England, and were debarred from standing for Parliament, and they had no doubt as to who should be the chairman of the new society they were founding, The [[Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade]]. On 22 May 1787, at the inaugural meeting of the committee β nine Quakers and three [[Anglican]]s (who strengthened the committee's likelihood of influencing Parliament) β Sharp's position was unanimously agreed. In the 20 years of the society's existence, during which Sharp was ever-present at committee meetings, such was Sharp's modesty that he would never take the chair, always contriving to arrive just after the meeting had started to avoid any chance of having to take the meeting. While the committee felt it sensible to concentrate on the slave trade, Sharp felt strongly that the target should be slavery itself. On this he was out-voted, but he worked tirelessly for the Society nevertheless.<ref name="Sheppard"/> ===Correspondence with Benjamin Rush=== The correspondence between Granville Sharp and Anthony Benezet inspired [[Benjamin Rush]], a physician in Philadelphia who would later become one of the founding fathers, to contact Sharp as well. This led to a connection by letter between the two that lasted 36 years. In the first letter, written May 1, 1773, Rush attests to the increasing compassion within the colonies towards the suffering of the slaves. He makes mention of the clergy publicly arguing that slavery is a violation of both "the laws of nature" and Christian belief.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1=Woods|first1=John A.|last2=Rush|first2=Benjamin|last3=Sharp|first3=Granville|date=1967|title=The Correspondence of Benjamin Rush and Granville Sharp 1773β1809|journal=Journal of American Studies|volume=1|issue=1|pages=1β38|jstor=27552761|doi=10.1017/S0021875800005946|s2cid=145052832 }}</ref> This detail is noteworthy because Sharp was of the belief that laws should follow both "the laws of nature" and that which is given in Judeo-Christian scripture.<ref name=":2" /> Another letter, written February 21, 1774, has Sharp providing Rush with several pamphlets, written by himself and his brothers William and James, to be shared with friends and eventually to Lord Dartmouth. Many similar exchanges of pamphlets occur throughout their correspondence, which allowed them to inspire one another and refine their arguments against slavery. The final letter of their correspondence was written June 20, 1809, four years prior to the death of both figures in 1813.<ref name=":3" /> ===Abolition=== When Sharp heard that the [[Slave Trade Act 1807|Act of Abolition]] had at last been passed by both Houses of Parliament and given Royal Assent on 25 March 1807, he fell to his knees and offered a prayer of thanksgiving. He was now 71, and had outlived almost all of the allies and opponents of his early campaigns. He was regarded as the grand old man of the abolition struggle, and although a driving force in its early days, his place had later been taken by others such as [[Thomas Clarkson]], [[William Wilberforce]] and the [[Clapham Sect]]. Sharp, however, did not see the final abolition as he died on 6 July 1813.<ref name=Sheppard/>
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