A memoir of Granville Sharp/Section 1

by Charles Stuart

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MEMOIR.

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SECTION I.

Granville Sharp was born at Durham in England, on 10th November, 1735. His earlier education was limited. In 1750, he was apprenticed, in London, to a Friend—afterwards to an Independent—and subsequently to a Romanist. This intercourse with different persuasions, appears to have had no effect upon his own creed—but he learnt from it, one of the most glorious lessons which man can learn, the cordial practice of that gracious charity, which "vaunteth not itself"—"which suffereth long and is kind."

Collision with a Socinian, who boasted that the original language of the New Testament favored his views, led Sharp to study the Greek—and controversy with a Jew, impelled him to the acquisition of the Hebrew. "To be ignorant of the truth, was to him a source of inexpressible pain; and to neglect the means of acquiring it, intolerable disgrace."

In 1757-8, he lost his parents—and from that time, he served the Government, in the Ordnance Department, until the beginning of the American war, in 1776, his prospects in life depending upon his situation. But duty, not interest, was his law; and when he found, that if he retained his office, he must be accessory to bloodshed, he did not hesitate to resign. In this, as throughout life, he evinced, that eternal truth, according to the scriptures, was his chief study—and "glory to God in the highest—and on earth, peace, good will to men" his great end. The pursuits of his subsequent life were various; but an ardent love of holy and impartial liberty, always eminently distinguished him, and to the sufferers of wrong, he was invariably an active and disinterested friend.

At this time slavery had disgraced the British Colonies in America and in the West Indies, for two hundred years. The righteous laws of the empire, had been evaded or perverted; and opinion and precedent had been substituted for law. Rulers and people had bowed down to the abomination. The Church and the world had given it, their sanction. The most distinguished lawyers crouched beneath the lie, and the Lord Chief Justice of the day, affirmed its validity. Truth and love, religion and humanity, were trampled upon without remorse. The inalienable rights of man, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" were given to the winds; and Britain, boasting of her love for liberty, was a slave-mistress; a slave-dealer; and a carrier of slaves.

In the course of this hypocritical and ferocious system, the slave masters of the west, had long been in the habit of bringing over domestic slaves, to serve them, presuming that they could transfer their pirate-rights to England. But their poor slaves judged better. Every where, they heard the voice—every where, they saw the step of liberty—and they panted to be free. The voice of nature and of nature's God, in them, and in all around them, told them that they had as good a title to liberty as their masters had—and many a British heart, untainted by the prevailing wickedness, sympathized in their misery and burnt with the same healthful truth. But the slaveholders, revolted with indignation from the interference which thus arose with their tyrant powers, and exultingly spread the question, before the highest officers of the law. They had men to suit their purpose—York and Talbot, the Attorney and Solicitor General of the day, thoroughly imbued with the guilt of the day, recorded in 1729, the following infamous opinion:

"We are of opinion, that a slave coming from the West Indies into Great Britain or Ireland, either with or without his master, does not become free—and that his master's right and property in him is not thereby determined or varied," &c.

Then exulted the slavemaster. Then sunk the soul of the slave. The last citadel on earth of liberty, seemed demolished—and man was let loose to prey upon man, without restraint. England became a slave market, and advertisements such as the following, disgraced the metropolis of freedom!

"PUBLIC ADVERTISER. Tuesday 28th Nov. 1769. "To be sold, a black girl, the property of J. B.; eleven years of age, who is extremely handy, works at her needle tolerably, and speaks English perfectly well—is of an excellent temper and willing disposition. Enquire of Mr. Owen, at the Angel Inn, behind St. Clement's Church, in the Strand."

Mischief framed by law, yet against law, thus took deep root in Britain. And the crown and the nobles—and the monied interests—and the church and the bench and the bar, watered together the deadly plant. The whole nation seemed gone away with one consent, from God, and from law, and from its poor brother.

But God had more than seven thousand men in England, who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Rejoice, ye poor! the same God reigns forever, and the time is hastening when for you, He shall cry, as He cried for them "For the oppression of the poor—for the sighing of the needy—now will I arise, saith the Lord—I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." Ps. xii. 5.

In 1765, David Lisle, a lawyer and a slave master of Barbadoes, then living in London, nearly killed one of his slaves, named Jonathan Strong, by most brutally beating him; and then turned him adrift in the streets. William Sharp, an eminent surgeon, Granville's brother, residing in the neighborhood, became acquainted with the facts and got Strong admitted to Bartholomew's Hospital. There he was partially cured—but his sight remained so dim in consequence of the wounds received on his head, that he continued to need aid from the brothers, and was by them put into the service of a benevolent apothecary, named Brown, in Fenchurch street. He served Brown about two years, and was gradually recovering, when his former master, David Lisle, met and recognized him one day in the streets. David Lisle immediately laid his plan; had Strong seized soon after by legal authority, and lodged in the Poultry Compter. The poor man made known his case, as quickly as possible to Granville Sharp.

On the 18th September, 1767, the cause was tried at the Mansion House, and the Lord Mayor finding no evidence against him, told Strong that he was at liberty. "I seize him," grasping Strong's arm, exclaimed Captain Laird, who attended on the part of the prosecutor, "as the property of Mr. Kerr." "And I charge you," said Granville Sharp severely, tapping him on the shoulder, "for an assault." Capt. Laird, alarmed, immediately relinquished his lawless hold, and Strong went forth unimpeded.

For this procedure, Granville Sharp, was charged with robbery, by David Lisle, and received a challenge to give gentlemanlike satisfaction. "You are a lawyer," said Sharp, "and you shall want no satisfaction which the law can give you."

But the lawyers whom Sharp consulted declared that the laws were against him. Sir James Eyre, Recorder of the City, whom he retained as his counsel, adduced to him, York and Talbot's opinion, and informed him that Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, agreed with these gentlemen.

Did he yield; No—Not "like the tender blossom, warm in summer bowers" was he—but like the storm-rocked oak, which "each assailing blast, increase of strength supplies." Eternal law was written on his bosom—the eternal law of righteousness and love. He would not believe that the laws of his country could be so utterly at variance with it, and he determined to probe the matter to the bottom. He began an intense and comprehensive study of British law; and his enemies, dubious of their boasted grounds, artfully protracting the trial, allowed him all the leisure which he needed. In this difficult task, he had no instructor but God—no assistant, except his own diligence—no encourager, except his conscience. The result of his research was a tract, "On the injustice and dangerous tendency of tolerating Slavery, or even of admitting the least claim to private property in the persons of men, in England." The arguments contained in it, were irresistible, and by its success, he amply fulfilled his promise to his antagonist. After about two years suspense, the prosecution was abandoned, and the plaintiff was compelled to pay treble costs for not bringing forward the action.

But the slaveholders, though once defeated, were not humbled. Tyrants do not readily repent or easily relax their grasp. The battle was but begun.

In 1770, an African named Thomas Lewis had left his master Mr. Stapylton, then residing in Chelsea (London.) Stapylton with the aid of two watermen whom he hired for the purpose, taking advantage of a dark night, seized Lewis, and after a struggle, dragged him off, gagging him as well as they could in the hurry. But his cries were providentially heard, and the ship to which he had been conveyed, being detained in the Downs by adverse weather, Lewis was brought back to London by writ of habeas corpus obtained and forwarded by the diligence of Granville Sharp, supported by Mrs. Banks, the mother of the celebrated traveler and naturalist Sir Joseph Banks. This rescue is described in the following words by Thomas Clarkson in his History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade: "The vessel had reached the Downs and had actually got under way for the West Indies. In a few hours, it would have been out of sight. Just at this critical moment, the writ of habeas corpus was carried on board. The officer who served it saw the miserable captive chained to the mainmast, bathed in tears, and casting a last mournful look on the land of freedom. The Captain on receiving the writ became outrageous—but knowing the serious consequences of resisting the law of the land he gave up his prisoner, whom the officer carried safe, but now weeping for joy to the shore." On the 12th July a bill was preferred and found by the Grand Jury of Middlesex against Stapylton, and the two watermen, Malony and Armstrong, in behalf of Lewis, "without the least demur or doubt on account of the plaintiff's complexion or idea of private property urged against him."

On the 20th February, 1771, the trial was had at the King's Bench, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield presiding. But so fraught was Mansfield's mind still, with the false views of the day, that although the jury, found Stapylton "guilty," the Chief Justice (such is justice often in human hands!) refused to proceed to judgment, and the criminals escaped. Against this proceeding of the judge, as against an open contempt of the laws of England, Sharp prepared a strong protest. The principles on which he proceeded, are thus expressed by himself, in a letter to Lord Carysport, in 1781: "This is the compendium or sum total of all my politics, so that I include them in a very small compass. I am thoroughly convinced that 'Right' ought to be adopted and maintained, on all occasions, without regard to consequences either probable or possible; for these (when we have done our own duty as honest men) must after all be left to the disposal of Divine Providence, which has declared a blessing in favor of right, 'Blessed are the keepers of judgment—and he that doeth righteousness at all times.'" Ps. cvi. 3.