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Granville Sharp
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===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=381–389|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=209–219|jstor=30074593}}</ref> In 1767, Lisle saw Strong in the street and planned to sell him to a Jamaica planter named James Kerr for £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 £200 damages for taking their property, and Lisle challenged Sharp to a duel—Sharp 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/>
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