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general abolition of the infamous traffic by the legislature : and , besides , the society has not met for a long time , and their funds are entirely expended . I am not a member of the Philanthropic Society , and am
quite unacquainted with their rules , but I apprehend that it would not come within the usual practice or rules of that society to advance any money towards paying the expense of sending the boy to l ^ ondon . To satisfy your third
question" What success has attended similar attempts to rescue from slavery < poor Negrpes who have accidentally been brought into other British ports ?"It is necessary that I should acquaint you that I was obliged to defend myself at a heavy expense against an
action at Jaw for having set a Negro at liberty in the year 1767 , one Jonathan Strong j * that my prosecutor , James Kerr , Esq . a Jamaica planter , was at length nonsuited and paid triple costs ; that I then printed the arguments which I had drawn up for
*— " M . my own defence against an opinion formerly given by the Lords Hardwick and Talbot jointly , when the one , was _ Attorney General and the other Solicitor General ( a copy of which had been produced to intimidate me ) , stating , " that a slave by coming from the West Indies to Great Britain or Ireland , either with or
* Whom " Mr . David Lisle had brought over from Barbadoes , * ' and afterwards u used in a barbarous manner , particularly by beating- him over the bead with a pistol . * ' The consequence was , that Strong became afflicted with a complication of disorders , * ' and being therefore wholly useless , was left by his master to go whitlver he pleased . " Mr . G . S . ' s brother , Mr . William S . was an eminent surgeon . Among his poor patients , Strongapplied . Mr . G . S . thus met with him , g-are him money , and when cured , provided
for him a place . Lisle , " his master , happened to see him , " contrived to kidnap him , and sold him to Kerr u for thirty pounds ; " but Mr . S . rescued him from " the Poultry Compter , " wbere " he was conveyed without any warrant , " till be could be put oq board a ship for Jamaica . Clarkson . Hist . Abol . I . 67—70 . This circumstance seems to have first turned Mr . Sharp ' s attention to the condition of Negroes . R ,
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without his master , doth not become free , " &c . " and that the master may legally compel him to return again to the plantations . " ( Signed ) P . York and C . Talbot , and dated 14 th Jan . 17 ^ 9-t All which 1 disproved as
being contrary to the foundations of the . English law . After the publication of my book , in 1769 , I set many more Negroes at liberty , recovering them , by writs of Habeas Corpus , from on board the ships in which they were confined : and by prosecuting their masters , until Lord Mansfield , in the case of
James Somerset ( whom I protected ) was compelled to give up the point in 1772 , and to acknowledge from the Bench ( in opposition to tlie abovementioned opinion of York and Talbot , which he cited / as well as against his own former assertions and practice ) , that " a case so odious as the condition of slaves must be taken strictly : that tracing the subject to
natural principles , the claim of slavery never can be supported . That the power claimed by this return , " ( viz . the return made by James Somerset ' s master , Mr . David Lisle , J a Lawyer , who afterwards challenged me to fight him , because I had liberated his
servant , )* " was never in use here or acknowledged by the law . That no master " was ever allowed here to take a slave by force to be sold abroad because he had deserted from his service , or for any other reason
whatever-• f Ci Opinions We are of opinion that a slave by coming * from the West Indies to Great Britain , or Ireland , either with , or without his master , doth not become fcee - , and that his master ' s property or rig-ht in him , is not thereby determined or varied j and that baptism doth not bestow freedom on hi in , nor make any alteration in his temporal condition in these kingdoms . We are aUo of opinion , that the master may legally compel him to return ag-ain , to the plantations . P . York , C . Talbot . "
Jan . 14 , 1729 . " Representation , &c . p . 2 . R . J This must be a misnomer by the copyist , which escaped Mr . Sharp ' s correction . According * to Clarkson , I . 76 f Somerset ' s master ' s name was Charles Stewart . R .
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Copy of a Letter to Dr . JFox , respecting a Negro JBoy . S 31
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1817, page 331, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2465/page/11/
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