ABOLITION & EMANCIPATION

Part 4: Granville Sharp Papers from Gloucestershire Record Office

A remarkable 18th century document within the Sharp Family Papers at Gloucestershire Record Office provides an exact account of the circumstances which led Granville Sharp (1735-1813) to study law and undertake the defence of slaves in England. It reads:

"One morning in the year 1765 as Granville Sharp was going out of the House of his Brother, Mr Wm Sharp (then an eminent Surgeon) ... he saw a poor Negro Boy about 16 or 17 years of age, standing at the Door with other poor sick people waiting for advice. The appearance of the Boy was so extreamly distressful (as he seemed ready to drop down) that G S thought it right to go back again & speak to his brother that immediate Relief might be given to him. ... The Boy was sent immediately by Mr Wm Sharp to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he was confined above 4 Months before he was fit to be discharged after having no place to go to, he applyed again to G S for relief, who recommended him to a Surgeon & Apothecary in Fenchurch Street as an Errand Boy to carry out Medicines, with whom he lived in that capacity about 2 years, was paid Wages, had a livery given him, & grew to be a stout good looking young Man-

On Saturday the 12th Septr 1767 G S received a Letter dated from the Poultry Counter, signed Jonathan Strong, imploring protection from being sold as a slave. G S did not recollect the name, but went the next day ... to the prison and demanded to see Jonathan Strong, who being called up, G S immediately recollected him; and enquired what he had done to be thus imprisoned? The Lad said he had not been guilty of any offence whatever, but that his former Master, David Lisle Esq (who brought him from Barbadoes, & had cruelly beat & ill treated him so as to occasion the miserable condition & Sickness for which he was sent to St Bartholomews Hospital about 2 years ago) had seen him behind a Hackney Coach attending his Mistress and followed him home to Fenchurch Street, that he might know where to find him, and that he had sold him to a Jamaica Planter, & put him into the Compter until a West India ship should be ready to sail. G S charged the Keepers of the Prison not to deliver up the said Jonathan Strong to any person whatsoever until he should be lawfully carried before a Magistrate.

After this G S accompanied by his Brother James Sharp waited on the Lord Mayor ... and requested that all persons who pretended to have a claim on the person of Jonathan Strong might be summoned before his Lordship.

When the appointed time was come, David Lisle did not appear, but only Mr William Macbean, a Notary Publick as Attorney for James Kerr Esq, a Planter of Jamaica, and David Laird, Captain of the Ship Thames bound to Jamaica, both claiming the Negro as the property of the said Planter by virtue of a Bill of Sale which they produced, signed by David Lisle Esq.

By this extraordinary demand of Mr William Macbean and Captn David Laird, the poor Negro was put into extreme fear and anguish they being, both of them, absolutely unknown to him as well as the name of the person for whom they acted.

Nothing can be more shocking to the Human Nature than the case of a Man or Woman who is thus delivered into the absolute power of Strangers to be treated according to the New Master’s Will & pleasure - for they have nothing but misery to expect; and poor Jonathan Strong, who was well acquainted with West India treatment seemed to be deeply impressed with that extream horror which the poor victims of the inhuman Traffic generally experience."

Space does not allow the full telling of the story here (the manuscript account - Ms D3549/13/3/28, Reel 70 - extends for 11 pages) but this vignette does draw attention to a number of important features. The account is typical of the flowing conversational style and the high level of detail provided by many of the documents in the collection. It also points to Sharp’s involvement in the law, which was to have profound significance for the institution of slavery. Sharp managed to persuade the Lord Mayor to release Strong as a free man, and then set about prosecuting Lisle for assault and battery (on the slave). Lisle issued a counter-suit charging Sharp with unlawfully detaining the property of another. All of the Judges, including Yorke, Talbot and Mansfield, lined up against Sharp, who applied himself to the task of learning the law of personal liberty. At length, and after involving himself in a host of other similar cases with varying degrees of success, Sharp managed to persuade William Blackstone to join his cause. As a result, he gained a famous victory in ‘the case vs J Somersett, 1772’ which established the principle that "as soon as any slave sets his foot upon English territory, he becomes free."

Having won this victory, Sharp then turned his attention to the Slave Trade in general and the issue of Slavery in the colonies. Together with Thomas Clarkson he established the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787. Sharp played an active role as chairman and talked and corresponded a great deal with William Pitt in England, Lafayette and Brissot in France, and Benezet in Philadelphia. Granville Sharp’s papers provide a rich source for the study of many aspects of late 18th century life. This is particularly true of the general correspondence which covers a period of nearly 50 years and contains detail and comment on contemporary events of major significance, notably the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of Independence.

The papers record his involvement in the abolitionist cause in full, but they also deal with: His sympathies for the American Colonies as described in ‘A Declaration of the People’s Natural Right to Share in the Legislature’; His involvement in the creation of a settlement at Sierra Leone; The founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society; Work for the African Institution (founded 1807); Work for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; His attempts to end the practise of duelling and his campaign to abolish the press-gang as a method of enlisting sailors.

Some of the many correspondents and their topics of discussion are:

Lord Abingdon, writing on the need for Parliamentary reform
John Adams, writing on the Episcopacy in America
David Barclay, concerning Spanish regulations on slavery, 1807
Marquis de Belleguarde discussing Sharp’s interpretation of the Apocalypse in the light of the French Revolution
Anthony Benezet, exchanges describing the progress of opposition to slavery in America and Quaker views: William Blackstone, writing on slavery and jurisprudence
Jacob Bryant, writing on the origin of negroes
the Archbishop of Canterbury, writing on the settlement of Sierra Leone, episcopacy in America, cross-dressing in plays, and Roman Catholic emancipation
Major John Cartwright (Boston), concerning the settlement in Sierra Leone and condemning American Commissioners in the House of Commons
Thomas Clarkson, writing on European slavery
the Committee of Correspondence (Connecticut), writing on the spread of missionary work in America, 1797-1798
the Earl of Dartmouth, concerning unfair treatment of Caribees in St Vincent, slavery in America, and the necessity of peace with America, 1772-1781
Rev Robert Findlay, writing on slavery, emigration of Scottish Highland families to America, and Roman Catholicism
Charles James Fox, on Irish affairs, 1782
Benjamin Franklin, on frankpledge, episcopacy in America and paper currency, 1775-1788
Mrs Gordon, on slavery in the colonies
Rev Samuel Hopkins (Rhode Island), on problems of the Sierra Leone colony and desire to free blacks in Massachusetts to return to Africa
Mr King (American Ambassador), on plans for laying out towns which may be useful in American black settlements
Lafayette, on the French Revolution and the founding of a society for the abolition of the slave trade in Paris
Dr Lanthenas, on the French Revolution and emigrées
Zachary Macaulay, on an unfortunate death and the Susoo language
James Madison on books for the College of William & Mary sent by Sharp, passages in scripture and church and government in America, 1791-1800
John Moreton, on the reaction of slave-owners in Grenada to parliamentary legislation
Lord North, urging immediate redress of slavery
James Pemberton (president of Pennsylvania Society for promoting abolition of slavery), on abolition; Spencer Percival, on America and the East Indies
William Pitt, on Parliamentary reform
Benjamin Rush (Philadelphia), on Anglo-American relations, the African church and on religious themes
Ann Jemima Sharp, regarding the case of Gustavus Vassa (Equiano);
John & William Sharp (brothers), on Slavery, Sierra Leone, Episcopacy, France, National Debt, and the regency question
Earl of Stanhope, writing on Catholic Emancipation, Ireland, and Sierra Leone
Lord Teignmouth, writing on the British & Foreign Bible Society, unfortunate affairs in Sierra Leone, and the protection of King during "unhappy disorder"
Henry Thornton, on slavery
George Washington, speech at opening of Congress, 1795
William Wilberforce, on slave ships, arming of catholics and free constitutional militia.

There are also substantial sections of memoranda and literary manuscripts by Sharp, including his notes on the foundation of Sierra Leone; six volumes of commonplace books, 1783-1812; four volumes of diary extracts, 1772-1813; Sharp’s heavily annotated copy of The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine; and numerous original pamphlets relevant to his cases.