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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Sir , Clapton * June 1 , 1817 . ABOUT ten years ago I had some conversation with Mr . Granville Sharp on the subject of his first attempts , forty years before that time , to vindicate the freedom of Negroes in England . He soon after very
obligingly communicated to me the following papers , the copies of his letters being endorsed , corrected and signed by himself . I am persuaded you will readily judge these authentic documents on such an interesting subject , to be worthy of preservation . The condition of Negroes in England ,
when Mr . Sharp undertook their cause , cannot be shewn more clearly than by the following advertisements , M » h * cb I copy from p . 87 of his first publication , * ' A Representation of the Injustice a * id Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery ; or of Admitting the least Claim of Private Property in the Persons of Men in Ensrland . "
1769 . Public Ledger , Dec . 31 , 1767 . ** For sale , a healthy Negro Girl , aged about fifteen years , speaks good English , works at her needle , washes
well , does household work , and has had the small pox . By J . W . at Mr . M * Auley ' s , the Amsterdam Coflfee-House , near the Exchange , from twelve till two o ' clock every day . "
Gazetteer , ApTll 18 , 17 o 9 » Horses , Tim Wisky , and Slack Hoy . " To be sold , at the Bull and Gate Inn , Holborn , a very good Tim Wisky , little the worse far wear ,- * a chesnut gelding , a very goad § rey 9 ra * ri , ~* -attd a well made good tempered Black Hoy , he has lately had the stiiall pox , ami will be sold to any
gentleman . Enquire as above . " Such were the reputed human brutes , mere marketable commodities , for whom Mr . Sharp , fifty yearfe
agO t solefy adventured to claim the rights of men , and submitted to be smiled upon as a humane visionary , iff not ce * ttsu red ad a busy body in other men ' s matters . But the wisdom with
Wmcfh'he pursued the impulse of hta benevolence was , at length , sufficiently justified . I hrtve been informed , probably from Himself , that he persevered , after his legal advfcerfe
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had " given up the cause as hopeless ^ entering upon a very laborious historical and legal research , to which the work I have mentioned bears ample testimony . It may , indeed , be
fairly questioned whether more unwearied industry were ever employed in the accumulation of wealth , than Mr , Sharp exerted through life , in finding occasions for its benevolent distribution .
It is remarkable that what was not considered as the established law of England till 1772 , mid after so severe a conflict , had been described as the known law of JFrance on * e hundred years before , i » the reign of Louis XIV . The following passage is a translation from Les Delices de la
France . 18 mo . Paris , 1071 , Prem . Part . p . 246 , by an author sufficiently courtly : — France is so fond of liberty that she cannot endure a slave . Thus neither Turks nor Moors , and still less Christian people must bear fetters or
be chained in that Country . So that slaves arriving in France , are Dp sooner landed than they exclaim for joy , ' France for ever , with her delightful liberty . ' I once observed , in a certain city of the kingdom , a Moor ,
in the train « Jf at Portuguese lady . Immediately oft quitting the vessel , he thretv himself on the earth , kissing it tenderly . Then raising his arms to heaven he cried ttloud , * France for ever ! I am free \ I am no longer a slave !*•
* u La France est si amonreuse de la liberty , qiTeUe nc pent pas souffiir un Esclave : de sorte que les Tufcs , & 16 s Mores , bien moitfs ettcore les Pennies Chrestiens , ce pettn * d £ iatnais porter < te fers ny efctre dharg * £ s < fe cfrafe&es , estaos d&ns son pay ^ s * . tfttssr ari ' ivie ^ il , que quand
ll y a des Eseravfes en FVandfe , m ri <* ^ odt pas si tost k tevre , qfu'ifa a'eta&rient pteins de ioy « ; Virfe la Frauce avec son aynHabte Libeit ^; & ie puis dire que i ' ay veu estant dans une Ville du Royautne une More a
la suitte d'une Dame Portugaise , laquelle ne fut pas si tost hors du vaissetiu que se iettant a terre , elle la baisa tendrement , haussant enstiifte les bras ver * le ci ^ l , ic criant a plein « teste ; Vive la France , ie attis libr ^; vive la France , ie ite snis plus Bwltorer . ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1817, page 328, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2465/page/8/
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