Bøker av Granville Sharp

Granville Sharp (1735-1813) undertook legal research to oppose slavery, and in 1769 published this work to demonstrate that slavery has no basis in English law. In 1772, the case of James Somerset was brought before Lord Mansfield, who upheld Sharp's contention, effectively freeing all slaves in England.

Self-educated in languages and the law, the author Granville Sharp (1735-1813) was a leading anti-slavery campaigner. Though many of his associates in the abolitionist movement were dissenters or freethinkers, he was an Anglican very much concerned with the fate of the church in America after the war of independence. His family consigned his archives to the painter, playwright and author Prince Hoare (1755-1834), who published this biography in 1820. Sharp is less well remembered than other British abolitionists such as Clarkson and Wilberforce, but it was his work which, in 1772, brought the landmark case of James Somerset before Lord Mansfield, who upheld Sharp's legal arguments: as a result, it was henceforth understood that any slave reaching the shores of England became free. Sharp's continuing work for abolition, and his many other charitable and scholarly activities, are detailed in this fascinating work, drawn directly from his own writings.

Granville Sharp (1735-1813) was a founding member of the London committee of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. This 1776 tract, a riposte to the idea that slavery is sanctioned by God, is a rigorous defence of liberty and of 'the honour of holy Scriptures'.