James Somerset

James Somerset

Somerset, James (b. c.1741, d. in or after 1772), slave, was born in Africa. He was bought by European slave traders and left Africa on 10 March 1749. He must have reached Virginia either on 23 May on the William (from Liverpool via Calabar and Antigua) or, more likely, on 26 June on the Susanna (probably from Liverpool via an unknown African port). On 1 August he was sold in Virginia to Charles Stewart or Steuart, a successful Scottish merchant who became a senior colonial customs official. During his captivity he was known simply as Somerset.

In summer 1768 Stewart requested leave to return to England, explaining that his health had been impaired by extensive travelling. He arrived in England on 10 November 1769, accompanied by Somerset, probably in the capacity of a trusted personal servant. On 10 February 1771 Somerset, who was then living (presumably with Stewart) in Baldwin's Gardens, Holborn, was baptized James Summersett at the church of St Andrew, Holborn. The baptismal register describes him as an ‘adult black’, aged about thirty. Although the baptism may reflect a genuine religious experience, it also had a wider significance, since it was popularly believed to confer manumission. There was no legal precedent either to confirm or dispel such a belief, but it was so pervasive that almost all British colonies that tolerated slavery had passed legislation explicitly repudiating it. It is likely therefore that Somerset's baptism signalled his first step in asserting his freedom: perhaps he was already being advised by abolitionists.

In what was later described as ‘a singular instance of ingratitude’ (GM, 443), Somerset left Stewart's service on 1 October 1771 and refused to return. His freedom lasted a bare two months: on 26 November he was seized and imprisoned. His friends promptly applied for a writ of habeas corpus to free him and his plight attracted the attention and support of Granville Sharp. Somerset's case posed considerable difficulties. Precedents concerning the legality of slavery in England were confused and contradictory, and slavery was deeply embedded into the economic fabric of the British empire. William Murray, Lord Mansfield, the then lord chief justice, did his best to persuade the parties to settle. Only when it became clear that it had become a test case did he agree to a hearing.

The return to the habeas corpus was carefully constructed to make the issues as simple as possible. It did not mention Somerset's baptism and so did not raise the question of manumission. It stated that ‘negro slaves’ were chattel goods, that Somerset was a slave according to the laws of Virginia and Africa, and that he was detained by order of his master in order to be sent to Jamaica and sold. The legal argument was therefore focused on whether slavery was legal in England and whether an English court could uphold colonial laws if they conflicted with English ones. Mansfield's carefully worded judgment, however, concentrated on the legality of forcible deportation. Since this was governed by a statute of 1679 (31 Charles II c.2 s.12), this enabled Mansfield to sidestep the wider issues. His judgment, delivered in July 1772, conceded an important but limited advancement of slave rights, in that invoking the 1679 statute established that slaves were servants, rather than chattels. It freed Somerset from imprisonment but left his status as a slave unresolved. However, it was widely believed that Mansfield had freed Somerset from slavery and this interpretation of the judgment has passed into Anglo-American legal mythology. Somerset himself believed that Mansfield had declared slavery to be illegal, and wrote to at least one other slave encouraging him to desert his master, on the grounds that ‘Lord Mansfield had given them their freedom’ (Oldham, ‘New light on Mansfield’, 66).

As for Somerset himself, there is little to add. When he stepped out of Westminster Hall in July 1772 he also stepped out of the historical record. Nothing is known, as yet, of his life (or death) after that date, and he remains very much a shadow at the centre of events controlled by others.

Sources  D. Eltis and others, eds., The transatlantic slave trade (1999) [CD-ROM] · F. Hargrave, An argument in the case of James Sommersett a negro lately determined in the court of king's bench (1772) · J. Oldham, The Mansfield manuscripts and the growth of English law in the eighteenth century, 2 vols. (1992) · M. S. Weiner, ‘New documentary evidence on James Somerset’, unpublished paper · Somerset v. Stewart (1772), Lofft 1, 98 ER 499 · PRO, T 1/468 · parish register, Holborn, St Andrew's, GL, 10 May 1771 [baptism] · J. Oldham, ‘New light on Mansfield and slavery’, Journal of British Studies, 27 (1988), 45–68 · GM, 1st ser., 68 (1798), 442–4 [obit. of Charles Steuart (Stewart)]