The Full Story
James Somerset was chained below deck on the Ann and Mary, anchored in the Thames, bound for Jamaica. His owner, Charles Stewart, had recaptured him after his escape and intended to sell him on a Caribbean plantation. Somerset would have vanished from history, just another enslaved man swallowed by the sugar trade.
But three ordinary people refused to let it happen. John Marlow, Thomas Walkin, and Elizabeth Cade, their names barely survive in the court records, went to Lord Mansfield's court and swore affidavits on Somerset's behalf. They were not lawyers. They were not politicians. They were godparents who had witnessed Somerset's baptism, and they demanded a writ of habeas corpus: bring the body before the court.
Mansfield tried to avoid the case. He urged Stewart to simply free Somerset. Stewart refused. So Mansfield was forced to rule. On 22 June 1772, he delivered the judgement that shook the legal foundations of slavery in England: 'The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged.'
The ruling did not abolish slavery outright. But it established that no master could forcibly remove an enslaved person from England. The law of England would not enforce slavery on English soil. It was the first crack in the legal wall.
What made it happen was not Parliament, not a campaign, not a movement. It was three ordinary people who walked into a court and said: not this man, not today.
Why This Matters
The Somerset ruling created a legal precedent that rippled across the English-speaking world. It established that slavery had no basis in English common law and could only exist where specific legislation created it. This principle became a weapon used by abolitionists for the next thirty-five years, culminating in the 1807 Abolition Act. The case also demonstrates that the moments which change history often begin not with the powerful, but with ordinary people who simply refuse to look away.
Key Facts
- ✓James Somerset was born c.1741 in West Africa, captured as a child, and purchased by Charles Steuart (a Scottish merchant) in Norfolk, Virginia on 1 August 1749, when Somerset was approximately 8-10 years old. (English Heritage, Lincoln's Inn archives, multiple academic sources)
- ✓Steuart brought Somerset to England in November 1769. Somerset resided at Baldwin's Gardens, Holborn, London. (English Heritage)
- ✓Somerset was baptised at St Andrew's Church, Holborn in August 1771. His three godparents were Thomas Walkin (sometimes Walklin), Elizabeth Cade, and John Marlow. (Court affidavits of 3 December 1771, English Heritage)
- ✓Somerset escaped in October 1771. He was recaptured on 26 November 1771, approximately 56 days after escaping, seized by slave catchers on Charles Steuart's orders. (English Heritage, court records)
- ✓Somerset was imprisoned on the ship Ann and Mary, commanded by Captain John Knowles, lying in the Thames, bound for Jamaica to be sold. (Confirmed in court affidavits of 3 December 1771)
- ✓The three godparents swore affidavits on 3 December 1771 that Somerset was "confined in irons on board a ship called the Ann and Mary" and applied for a writ of habeas corpus before the Court of King's Bench. (Court records, English Heritage)
- ✓Granville Sharp (1735-1813) was a clerk at the Ordnance Office at the Tower of London from 1758. He was one of fourteen children of an archdeacon, could not afford university, and taught himself law, Greek, and Hebrew in his spare time. He orchestrated the legal strategy behind the Somerset case and had previously fought three other cases involving enslaved people (Jonathan Strong 1765-68, Hylas v Newton 1766-68, R v Stapylton 1770-71). (Spartacus Educational, Britannica, Westminster Abbey commemorations)
- ✓Francis Hargrave (c.1741-1821) was approximately 31 years old. The Somerset case was confirmed as his first ever appearance as an advocate. "Although the case was Hargrave's first, his efforts on the occasion secured his reputation." His argument, that slavery must be either completely accepted or completely rejected, was substantially incorporated into Mansfield's ruling. (Lincoln's Inn archives, Brycchan Carey biography, multiple academic sources)
- ✓The West India planters and merchants bankrolled Charles Steuart's defence. Steuart himself wrote that "the West Indian Planters and Merchants have taken it off my hands." They hired John Dunning MP and William Wallace as defence counsel. They refused all settlement attempts. (English Heritage, court records)
- ✓Lord Mansfield (William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield), Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, delivered his ruling on 22 June 1772. (Standard historical record)
- ⚠The "so odious" quote: "The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political... it's so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law." This is from the law report of Capel Lofft, who was an anti-slavery campaigner and may have presented Mansfield's words as more radical than delivered. A manuscript account by Serjeant Hill records a more restrained version. However, the Lofft version is the standard citation in legal history and the "so odious" language almost certainly was used by Mansfield. Defensible for a script.
- ⚠The ruling's legal scope was narrower than popularly believed. It held that a master could NOT seize a slave in England and forcibly remove them from the realm for sale abroad. It did NOT explicitly abolish slavery in England. Mansfield later clarified (1785) his ruling merely prevented forced deportation. However, it was widely reported and understood as having much broader implications, and many enslaved people in England treated it as emancipation. The script's framing of "walked free" is accurate for Somerset specifically and reflects the popular understanding.
- ✓On or around 27 June 1772, the Public Advertiser reported that "near 200 Blacks... with their ladies" gathered at "a public-house in Westminster" to celebrate. "Lord Mansfield's Health was echoed round the Room; and the evening was concluded with a Ball." Ticket price was 5 shillings. The specific pub is not named in any surviving source. (Public Advertiser newspaper report, English Heritage)
- ✓The Slave Trade Act was passed in 1807 (35 years after the Somerset ruling), abolishing the transatlantic slave trade in the British Empire. The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (61 years after Somerset) abolished slavery itself across most of the British Empire. (Standard historical record)
- ⚠"That ruling lit a fire", the Somerset ruling is widely credited by historians as a pivotal moment in energising the abolitionist movement. It was cited in freedom petitions by enslaved people in the American colonies and became the most cited case in the common law of slavery. However, the direct causal chain from Somerset to 1807/1833 involved many other factors, people, and events. The script's framing is a defensible narrative compression.
- ✓At the time of the ruling, an estimated 10,000-15,000 people were enslaved in England, mostly as domestic servants. Lord Mansfield himself estimated 15,000 in London alone during the proceedings. (Gentleman's Magazine 1764, court records, modern scholarly estimates)
- ✓The famous phrase "the air of England is too pure for a slave to breathe" was NOT said by Lord Mansfield. It was argued by Serjeant William Davy during the case, quoting the disputed Cartwright case (1569). The script does NOT use this quote. (Legal History Miscellany, multiple academic sources)