Liberia ^ 



to their aid, especially the Wesleyans. Somehow the enthusiasm 

 spread to the Lutherans of Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. 

 The first country which as a nation denounced the slave trade 

 not only in principle, but in practice, amongst its subjects on 

 the West Coast of Africa was Denmark (1792),^ followed by the 

 United States in 1794, by Great Britain in 1807, Sweden in 

 1 813, Holland in 18 14, and France in 1815-18. 



In England the anti-slavery movement began about 1772 

 by the trial of a Negro named Somerset before the bench of 

 judges, presided over by Lord Mansfield. James Somerset was 

 a slave who had accompanied his master to England, and there 

 declared himself to be free ; but the majority of the judges 

 decided against him, though the Lord Chief Justice dissented 

 from the opinion of the majority and pronounced a famous 

 decision which really fixed the law, namely, that every one was 

 free who took refuge on British soil. The loss of the United 

 States brought the question of slavery before the British public. 

 A number of Negroes had fought with their Loyalist masters on 

 the British side, and after the war received their freedom and 

 were settled in Nova Scotia, where, as in Canada, many awkward 

 questions regarding the validity of slavery began to arise. Not 

 a few of these liberated Africans drifted to England, especially 

 from Nova Scotia ; and to England also had come a number of 

 ex-slaves from the West Indies, who, after the decision in the case 

 of Somerset (for which Granville Sharp had struggled), found 

 themselves in the status of free men. 



It would take up space unduly in this book to dilate on 

 the efforts of Granville Sharp, Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, 

 William Dillwyn, and others to bring about the abolition of 

 slavery and the slave trade. This great movement finally 



' Ten years' grace, however, was allowed for total cessation of the trade in 

 1802. 



