by Paula Byrne
Chapter 3: The Slave
1 Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History (2007) is the best account of the Atlantic slave trade.
2 See Samuel Robinson, A Sailor Boy’s Experience Aboard a Slave Ship (1867), pp.29–32.
3 John Newton kept a journal of his experiences as a slave trader. See The Works of the Rev John Newton (6 vols, 1808). Slave surgeon James Arnold gave evidence about the voyage to Parliament in 1788: ‘It was Mr. Arnold’s business to examine them before they were purchased for the vessel. If a man was ruptured, or a woman had a fallen breast, they never bought them. If they did not exceed four feet, they were refused.’ See ‘The Abolition Project’, http://abolition.e2bn.org/slavery-44.html.
4 Thomas Aubrey, The Sea-Surgeon, or the Guinea Man’s Vade Mecum (1729), pp.118–20.
5 See Donald R. Hopkins, The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History (2002), p.216.
6 The History of Mary Prince, ed. Sarah Salih (2004). Prince’s 1831 History is not straightforward. Her story is mediated by an amanuensis called Susanna Strickland, with an editorial supplement by Thomas Pringle and several appendices. Strickland excised parts of Mary’s story that she deemed unsuitable, such as Mary’s sexual relationship with a white captain. Editor Sarah Salih describes it as a ‘collection of texts’, but many parts appear to capture Mary’s ‘exact expressions and peculiar phraseology’, in particular the amazingly impassioned final pages, which include native words and phrases.
7 The History of Mary Prince, p.21.
8 Ibid., pp.11–12.
9 Rediker, p.51.
10 Robert Walsh, ‘Notices of Brazil in 1828 and 1829’ (1831), reprinted as ‘Aboard a Slave Ship, 1829’, EyeWitness to History, http://www.eyewitnesstohistory .com/slaveship.htm.
11 The Posthumous Works of the Late Rev John Newton (1809), p.239.
12 Ottobah Cugoano, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (1787), p.10.
13 John Newton’s Journal, 24 June 1754.
14 Olaudah Equinao, Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African (1789, 9th edn 1794), p.134.
15 The Guinea Voyage (1807 edn), p.31.
16 Ibid., p.37.
17 Works of the Rev John Newton, 5, pp.532–3.
18 Ibid., p.533.
19 Thomas Clarkson, History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade (2 vols, 1808), 2, p.43.
20 ‘It is unaccountable, but certainly true, that the moment a Guinea Captain comes in sight of this shore, the demon cruelty seems to fix his residence within him’, James Stanfield, Observations on a Guinea Voyage (1788), pp.15–18.
21 Alexander Falconbridge, Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa (1788), p.52.
22 William Butterworth, Three Years Adventures of a Minor in England, Africa, the West Indies, South Carolina and Georgia (1831), p.80.
23 Rediker, p.203.
24 Ibid., p.215.
25 See Elizabeth Abbott, Sugar: A Bittersweet History (2010), p.128.
26 Trevor Burnard, Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World (2004), p.175. I am much indebted to this excellent study.
27 Ibid., p.178.
28 Ibid., p.180.
29 Maria Nugent, Lady Nugent’s Journal of her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805 (1834), p.87.
Chapter 4: The White Stuff
1 Elizabeth Abbott, Sugar: A Bittersweet History (2011), pp.56–60.
2 Duncan Forbes, Some Considerations on the Present State of Scotland (1744), quoted, Richard B. Sheridan, Sugar and Slavery: An Economic History of the British West Indies 1623–1775 (1974), p.28.
3 See Kim Wilson, Tea with Jane Austen (2011), p.17.
4 Austen, Emma (1815), vol. 3, ch.2.
5 Average sugar consumption in Britain rose from four pounds per head in 1700 to eighteen pounds in 1800, thirty-six pounds by 1850 and over one hundred pounds by the twentieth century. See Clive Ponting, World History: A New Perspective (2000), p.698, and Matthew Parker, The Sugar Barons: Family, Corruption, Empire and War (2012).
6 Abbott, p.53.
7 Ponting, p.510.
8 The decrease in slave population averaged about 3 per cent per year in Jamaica and 4 per cent per year in the smaller islands.
9 O. Senior, Mirror, Mirror: Identity, Race and Protest in Jamaica (2003), p.207. See also E. K. Brathwaite, The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica, 1770–1820 (1971).
10 Abbott, p.87.
11 Relatively little ‘white’ sugar was imported to England, though Barbados had good sources of clay, and this produced more ‘white’ sugar. See Chuck Meide, The Sugar Factory in the Colonial West Indies: An Archaeological and Historical Comparative Analysis (2003).
12 Quoted in Abbott, p.89.
13 See Mary Prince, p.15.
14 Ibid., p.37.
15 The best accounts of Thistlewood can be found in Burnard’s Mastery, Tyranny and Desire and Parker’s The Sugar Barons.
16 See Burnard, pp.166–7.
17 See my The Real Jane Austen, p.220.
18 Quoted in Abbott, p.124.
19 Quoted in ibid., p.72.
20 See David Richardson, ‘The Slave Trade, Sugar, and British Economic Growth, 1748–1776’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 17 (Spring 1987), 739–69.
Chapter 5: ‘Silver-Tongued Murray’
1 See the superb Norman S. Poser, Lord Mansfield: Justice in the Age of Reason (2013), p.15.
2 Edmund Heward, Lord Mansfield: A Biography of William Murray 1st Earl of Mansfield, 1705–1793, Lord Chief Justice for 32 Years (1979), p.12.
3 Boswell, Life of Johnson (1791), entry for spring 1772.
4 His brother James wrote in 1763: ‘I hear my brother has been made Lord Chancellor of England, but as I have not had a letter from home for thirty years, I know not if it be true or not.’ Quoted, James Oldham, ‘Murray, William, first Earl of Mansfield’, The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).
5 Poser, p.26.
6 Ibid., p.24.
7 They attended different colleges, Pitt being a freshman when Murray was in his final year. Murray entered and won the competition in 1727, just before he came down from Oxford.
8 Locke, Of Government, Bk 1, Chap. 1, opening sentence. See further, Stephen Usherwood, ‘The Black Must be Discharged: The Abolitionists’ Debt to Lord Mansfield’, History Today 31.3 (1981).
9 Poser, p.28.
10 Frequently cited, e.g. by William Hazlitt, The Eloquence of the British Senate (1810 edn), 2, p.29, though I have not traced the original context in Pope.
11 Quoted in Poser, p.54.
12 Heward, p.24.
13 Quoted in Poser, p.64.
14 See ibid., pp.147–8.
15 Private Papers of James Boswell, 9 (1963), p.48.
16 Quoted in Poser, p.171.
17 An Account of the Life of that Celebrated Actress Mrs Susannah Maria Cibber … Also the two Remarkable and Romantic Trials between Theophilus Cibber and William Sloper (1887 edn), p.46.
18 Lord John Campbell, ‘The Life of Lord Mansfield’, in his The Lives of the Chief Justices of England (1849 edn), 2, p.343.
19 Quoted, Maynard Mack, Alexander Pope: A Life (1985), p.688.
20 Heward, p.38.
21 Poser, p.35.
22 Ibid., p.163.
23 The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam (1778), ‘II. The Villa of Earl Mansfield, at Kenwood’.
24 Poser, p.165.
25 Coleridge to Henry Crabb Robinson, Highgate, June 1817.
26 The painting is traditionally dated ‘c.1780’.
27 ‘Kenwood’s Picturesque Landscape’, http://www.englishheritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenwood-house/garden/landscape/.
28 Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, II.
29 James Oldham, The Mansfield Manuscripts and the Growth of English Law in the Eighte
enth Century (2 vols, 1992), 1, p.25.
Chapter 6: The Adopted Daughters
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, ‘T
he 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).
10 Sancho, Letter LXVIII, to J— S— Esq., from Charles Street, 9 June 1780.
Chapter 13: A Visitor from Boston
1 Aurora and Universal Advertiser, 22 February 1781.
2 Inference from Hutchinson Diary, discussed below.
3 The will was published in full, with its codicils, in several newspapers after Mansfield’s death, e.g. Diary or Woodfall’s Register, Saturday, 20 April 1793. The probate copy is in the National Archive at PROB 11/1230/206.
