to bring the woman back. In 1776, Thomas Lewis was kidnapped and shipped for Jamaica. Sharp found him chained to the mainmast of a ship at Spithead, and by a writ of habeas corpus brought him before Lord Mansfield, the very judge whose opinion had been most strongly expressed in opposition to that entertained by Granville Sharp on the subject of slavery.
Lord Mansfield discharged the negro, because no evidence was adduced to show that he was ever nominally the property of the man who claimed him; but the great question of liberty or slavery remained as undecided as before. At this time the slave-trade was carried on openly in the streets of London, Bristol, and Liverpool.
Negro slavery was enforced by merchants, supported by lawyers, and upheld by judges; and that a clerk in a public office, without personal influence, and armed, only with integrity and moral courage, should, under such circumstances, assert, and, in the end, should prove, that the slave who sets his foot on British ground becomes at that instant free, is one of the most striking incidents in modern history.
An opportunity for bringing the conflicting opinions to an issue soon occurred. A negro named James Somerset had been taken to England and left there by his master, who afterwards wished to send him back to Jamaica. Sharp found counsel to defend the negro, and Lord Mansfield intimated that the case was one of such general concern, that he should take the opinions of all the judges upon it. The case was adjourned and readjourned, and was carried over from term to term; but at length Lord Mansfield declared
