Featuring: Larry Kenneth Alexander
The Somerset Decision Transcript:
In 1766, the British imperial government asserted its control by legislatively abolishing colonial America’s slave codes and hereditary laws. However, the institution of colonial slavery persisted due to widespread corruption and graft within the colonial government. Five years later, in 1771, an enslaved colonial Black Englishman named James Somerset found himself aboard a slave ship in London, destined for the sugar plantations of Jamaica—a virtual death sentence. On December 3, 1771, members of the Society for the Abolishment of Slavery petitioned Lord Chief Justice Mansfield of England’s Court of the King’s Bench for a writ of habeas corpus, which was subsequently granted. Charles Stewart was ordered to deliver Somerset to the court in January 1772 to determine Somerset’s legal status.
The case centered on whether James Somerset, a pretended enslaved Black colonial, should be considered chattel property based upon colonial American slave codes while living in England, or whether he should be regarded as free. Somerset’s lawyer argued for his freedom, asserting that slavery violated English common law. On June 22, 1772, in the landmark case of Somerset v. Stewart, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield delivered the unanimous verdict of the King’s Bench, ruling that slavery was not allowed or approved by the law of this kingdom. Mansfield emphasized that slavery could only be lawful through positive law—a legislative power solely possessed by the Parliament of Great Britain. Consequently, Somerset was given his liberty.
In a modern context, His Majesty’s King’s Bench in the Somerset decision ruled unanimously that slavery was unconstitutional and unlawful throughout the kingdom, as no statute enacted by Parliament had ever authorized slavery, nor did England’s common law support it. Mansfield’s ruling meant that many influential and aristocratic individuals stood to lose vast wealth if slavery in the American colonies was deemed illegal by England’s highest court and abruptly halted by colonial governors. As a result, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Lord North, instructed colonial governors in the American colonies to temporarily disregard the Somerset decision in colonial courts, fearing social chaos.
Some historians argue that the British imperial government’s response to the Somerset decision increased colonial support for separatism in the American colonies on both sides of the slavery question. In the North, patriots like Samuel Adams railed against repeated vetoes of the Massachusetts Assembly’s legislation to emancipate enslaved Black people. They saw this as clear evidence of Britain’s contempt for the rule of law laid out in the Somerset decision. Meanwhile, Southern slaveholders viewed the entire situation as a looming threat—a calculated attempt by the Kingdom of Great Britain to strip them of the immense wealth and power that the institution of slavery provided.
The gravity of these developments pushed Virginia’s colonial elite to call for a united front among the 13 American colonies to defend their wealth and influence. Yet, with no formal communication networks between the colonies—long discouraged by the British imperial government—such coordination was complex. However, by the spring of 1773, Massachusetts was in open defiance of British authority, arguing that taxes imposed without representation were assaults on the property rights of British subjects. This bold stance provided Virginia’s elite with the perfect opportunity to align themselves with Massachusetts’ resistance, framing the fight for self-governance as a defense of liberty and a means to protect their own economic interests.
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