Somerset Case — Slavery and English Law
On 22 June 1772, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield ruled in the case of James Somerset — an enslaved man brought to England from Virginia by his master Charles Stewart — that slavery had no basis in English common law and that Somerset could not be forcibly returned to the colonies for sale. The ruling did not abolish slavery in the British Empire (only in England), but it electrified both abolitionists and slave owners. It created a legal sanctuary for enslaved people who reached England, fuelled the abolitionist movement, and provided the legal reasoning that eventually underpinned the Slave Trade Act (1807). For American colonists, Mansfield's ruling — and the broader Somerset controversy — reinforced fears that Britain intended to interfere with colonial slavery institutions, contributing to revolutionary sentiment.
- Year: 1772 CE
- Category: Political
