Belle (24 page)

  
1
  Burnard, p.170.

  
2
  Abbott, p.128.

  
3
  Ibid., p.127.

  
4
 
Mary Prince
, p.26.

  
5
  Abbott, p.137.

  
6
  Thomas Hutchinson,
The Diary and Letters of his Excellency Thomas Hutchinson
(2 vols, 1886), 2, p.276.

  
7
  Quoted John Cornforth, ‘Scone Palace, Part 1’,
Country Life
, 11 August 1988, http://www.countrylife.co.uk/culture/article/531123/Scone-Palace-The-Seat-of-the-Earl-of-Mansfield-and-Mansfield-part-1-by-John-Cornforth.html.

  
8
  Ibid.

  
9
  Hastings MSS, 3.138, quoted, H.M. Scott, ‘Murray, David’ in
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19600.

10
  See
London Chronicle
, 10 June 1788.

11
  Parish Register of St George’s, Bloomsbury, 20 November 1766, photograph at http://www.caitlindavies.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dido-baptism.jpg.

12
  Quoted, Gene Adams, ‘Dido Elizabeth Belle: A Black Girl at Kenwood’,
Camden History Review
, vol. 12 (1984), 10–14.

13
  Cumberland,
Memoirs
(2 vols, 1806), 2, p.344.

Chapter 7: Black London

  
1
  See James Walvin,
Black and White: The Negro and English Society, 1555–1945
(1973), p.46, and Fallon Shyllon,
Black People in Britain 1555–1833
(1977), p.4.

  
2
  As told to Boswell by the Earl of Pembroke, see Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina,
Black London: Life Before Emancipation
(1995), pp.14, 73.

  
3
  See Gerzina, pp.54–5.

  
4
 
Letters of Ignatius Sancho
(2 vols, 1782), 1, p.126.

  
5
  Ibid., p.101.

  
6
  Ibid., p.72.

  
7
  See Abbott, pp.143–4; Gabriel Banat, ‘Man of Music and Gentleman-at-Arms: The Life and Times of an Eighteenth-Century Prodigy’,
Black Music Research Journal
(1990), 10 (2), p.180; Gabriel Banat,
The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow
(2006); Alain Guédé,
Monsieur de Saint-George: Virtuoso, Swordsman, Revolutionary, a Legendary Life Rediscovered
, trans. Gilda M. Roberts (2003); Emil F. Smidak,
Joseph Boulogne Called Chevalier de Saint-Georges
(1996).

Chapter 8: Mansfield the Moderniser

  
1
  Poser, p. 3.

  
2
  Ibid., pp.194–5.

  
3
  Todd Lowry, ‘Lord Mansfield and the Law Merchant: Law and Economics in the Eighteenth Century’,
Journal of Economic Issues
, December 1973, 7 (4).

  
4
  See Heward, p.46, well summarised in Wikipedia entry on Mansfield.

  
5
  Ibid., pp.104–5. Point below also well summarised in Wikipedia.

  
6
  C.H. Fifoot,
Lord Mansfield 1705–1793
(1936), p.201.

  
7
  Quoted in the excellent Steven M. Wise,
Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial that Led to the End of Human Slavery
(2005), p.73.

  
8
 
Black’s Law Dictionary
(5th edn), p.851, and ‘Recent Cases – Evidence – Divorce – Competency of Spouse to Testify as to Non-Access’,
Mercer Beasley Law Review
, vol. 3, No. 1, January 1934, p.112.

  
9
  Poser, p.208.

10
  Quoted in
Though the Heavens May Fall
, p.66.

11
  Quoted in Poser, p.205.

12
  See
The Heart of Boswell: Six Journals in One Volume
, ed. Mark Harris, p.326. Also quoted in Poser, p.206.

13
  I borrow this account from Rictor Norton (ed.), ‘The Case of Chevalier D’Eon, 1777’,
Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook
, 1 March 2005 .

Chapter 9: Enter Granville Sharp

  
1
  ‘We are of the opinion, that a slave, by coming from the West Indies, either with or without his master, to Great Britain or Ireland, doth not become free; and that his master’s property or right in him is not thereby determined or varied; and baptism doth not bestow freedom on him, nor make any alteration to his temporal condition in these kingdoms. We are also of opinion, that the master may legally compel him to return to the plantations.’ See http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/slave_free.htm.

  
2
  See Heward, p.142.

  
3
  See Peter Fryer,
Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain
(1984), p.152.

  
4
  Sharp,
A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery
(1769), p.6.

  
5
  See William Blackstone,
Commentaries on the Laws of England
(1765), p.123.

  
6
  Why did he do this? Clearly, Blackstone did not want the passage used to support the doctrine that a master would automatically lose his right to the service of any slave brought to England. It has been suggested that Mansfield prevailed upon him to excise the passage: Simon Schama,
Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution
(2006), p.40.

  
7
  See ibid., p.39.

  
8
  See Walvin,
The Zong
, p, 122.

  
9
  See Oldham,
Mansfield Manuscripts
, 2, pp.1225–6.

10
  Sharp,
A Representation
, p.13.

11
  Wise, p.89.

12
  See Gerzina, p.112.

13
  Wise, p.106.

14
  Gerzina, p.114.

15
  Ibid., p.111.

Chapter 10: The Somerset Ruling

  
1
  This key point is made by Wise, p.115.

  
2
  Schama, p.56.

  
3
  J.H. Baker, ‘Davy, William’, in
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7320.

  
4
  A copy is held in the Guildhall Library, London, B:S 531.

  
5
  Sharp,
A Representation
, p.109.

  
6
  Ibid., p.57.

  
7
  Wise, p.151.

  
8
  Schama, p.58.

  
9
  Ibid., p.171.

10
  ‘An Argument in the Case of James Somersett’ (
The Gentleman’s Magazine
, 1 January 1773).

11
  See
London Evening Post
, 6 and 11 June 1772, and
Public Advertiser
, 13 June 1772.

12
 
London Evening Post
, 11 June 1772.

13
  There have been whole books dedicated to the ruling: see Wise,
Though the Heavens May Fall
.

14
 
Morning Chronicle
, 23 June 1772.

15
  This is from the
General Evening Post
, 21–23 June 1772. See also Oldham,
Mansfield Manuscripts
, 2, p.1230, which states: ‘[Slavery] is so odious that it must be construed strictly.’ Schama takes his account from Granville Sharp’s papers.

16
 
Capel Lofft, Reports of cases adjudged in the Court of King’s Bench from Easter term 12 Geo. 3. to Michaelmas 14 Geo. 3. (both inclusive) [1772–1774]: With some select cases in the Court of Chancery, and of the Common Pleas, which are within the same period. To which is added, the case of general warrants, and a collection of maxims
. Lofft’s account provided the basis for the version of the judgement printed in the official record of
State Trials
.

17
  Quoted in Randy J. Sparks,
The Two Princes of Calabar: An Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Odyssey
(2004), p.98.

18
  See
Morning Chronicle
, 23 June 1772.

19
  See Abbott, p.221.

20
  Cowper,
The Task
(1785), Bk 2, lines 37ff.

21
  Clarkson, 1, p.66.

22
  Thomas Hutchinson’s journal, discussed in ch.13, below.

23
  Lord John Campbell,
Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England
(1858–59 edn), 2, p.359.

24
  See
A letter to Philo Africanus: in answer to his of the 22d of November, in the General evening post; together with the opinions of Sir John Strange, and other eminent lawyers upon this subject, with the sentence of Lord Mansfield, in the case of Somersett and Knowles, 1772, with His Lordship’s explanation of that opinion in 1786
. In this 1786 pamphlet, it is stated that Mansfield clarified his position on the Somerset ruling; see pp.37–40.

25
  Gerzina, p.132.

Chapter 11: The Merchant of Liverpool

  
1
  See Jane Longmore, ‘Civic 1680–1800’ in
Liverpool 800: Culture, Character and History
, ed. John Belcham (2007), p.129.

  
2
  Celia Fiennes, writing as early as 1698.

  
3
  William Moss,
The Liverpool Guide
(1796), p.1.

  
4
  Longmore, p.148.

  
5
  Jane Webster, ‘The
Zong
in the Context of the Eighteenth-Century Slave Trade’,
Journal of Legal History
(2007), 28 (3): 285–298. These figures derive from interrogation of D. Eltis, S.D. Behrendt, D. Richardson and H.S. Klein, ‘The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database’ on CD-rom (1999).

  
6
  See Longmore, ‘Civic 1680–1800’, p.123. Liverpool’s black community dates from the building of the first dock in 1715, and grew rapidly, reaching a population of 10,000 within five years.

  
7
  See John Hughes,
Liverpool Banks and Bankers, 1760–1837
(1906), p.108.

  
8
  Ibid., p.110.

Chapter 12: A Riot in Bloomsbury

  
1
 
Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho
, letter LXVII, 6 June 1780.

  
2
  Campbell,
Chief Justices
, 2, p.529.

  
3
  This account has been reconstructed from contemporary newspaper accounts in the
London Chronicle
, the
Public Advertiser
, the
General Evening Post
and the
Bristol Mercury and Evening Advertiser
.

  
4
  See Julius Bryant,
Kenwood: Paintings in the Iveagh Bequest
(2012).

  
5
  Sir J.W. Fortescue (ed.),
The Correspondence of King George III from 1760 to December 1783
(1928), p.135.

  
6
 
Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser
, 13 June 1878, and
General Evening Post
, 13 June 1780.

  
7
  Heward, p.159.

  
8
  Ibid.

  
9
  Charles Dickens immortalised the Gordon Riots, and the attack on Mansfield’s house, in his novel
Barnaby Rudge
(1841), which is subtitled
A Tale of the Riots of Eighty
: ‘the mob gathering round Lord Mansfield’s house, had called on those within to open the door, and receiving no reply (for Lord and Lady Mansfield were at that moment escaping by the backway), forced an entrance according to their usual custom. That they then began to demolish the house with great fury, and setting fire to it in several parts, involved in a common ruin the whole of the costly furniture, the plate and jewels, a beautiful gallery of pictures, the rarest collection of manuscripts ever possessed by any one private person in the world, and worse than all, because nothing could replace this loss, the great Law Library, on almost every page of which were notes in the Judge’s own hand, of inestimable value, – being the results of the study and experience of his whole life’ (Chapter 66).