352 HABEAS CORPUS. 



There was a young man named Granville Sharp, 

 whose benevolent heart was touched to the quick by 

 the abominable scenes which he had witnessed more 

 than once. He could not believe that such was really 

 English law. He examined the question for himself, 

 and, after long search, discovered precedents which 

 overthrew the opinion of the two great lawyers. He 

 published a pamphlet in which he stated his case ; and 

 not content with writing, he also acted in the cause, 

 aiding and abetting negroes to escape. On one 

 occasion a Virginian had disposed of an unruly slave 

 to a skipper bound for the West Indies. The vessel 

 was lying in the river ; the unfortunate negro was 

 chained to the mast ; when Granville Sharp climbed 

 over the side with a writ of Habeas Corpus in his 

 hand. James Somerset's body was given up, and 

 with its panting, shuddering, hopeful, fearful soul in- 

 side, was produced before a Court of Justice that Lord 

 Mansfield might decide to whom it belonged. The 

 trial was argued at three sittings, and excited much 

 interest throughout the land. It ended in the libera- 

 tion of the slave. 



Several hundred negroes were at once bowed out 

 by their masters into the street, and wandered about, 

 sleeping in glass-houses, seated on the door-steps of 

 their former homes, weeping, and cursing Granville 

 Sharp. It was resolved to do something for them, 

 and a grant of land was obtained from the native 

 chiefs at the mouth of the Sierra Leone River : a 

 company was formed ; four hundred destitute negroes 

 were sent out ; and, as if there were no women in 

 Africa, fifty " unfortunates " were sent out with them. 

 The society of these ladies was not conducive to the 

 moral or physical well-being of the emigrants, eighty- 



