Self Help by Samuel Smiles (desktop ebook reader txt) 📖

Downs. A writ of

Habeas Corpus was obtained, sent down to Spithead, and before the

ship could leave the shores of England the writ was served. The

slave was found chained to the main-mast bathed in tears, casting

mournful looks on the land from which he was about to be torn. He

was immediately liberated, brought back to London, and a warrant

was issued against the author of the outrage. The promptitude of

head, heart, and hand, displayed by Mr. Sharp in this transaction

could scarcely have been surpassed, and yet he accused himself of

slowness. The case was tried before Lord Mansfield—whose opinion,

it will be remembered, had already been expressed as decidedly

opposed to that entertained by Granville Sharp. The judge,

however, avoided bringing the question to an issue, or offering any

opinion on the legal question as to the slave’s personal liberty or

otherwise, but discharged the negro because the defendant could

bring no evidence that Lewis was even nominally his property.

 

The question of the personal liberty of the negro in England was

therefore still undecided; but in the mean time Mr. Sharp continued

steady in his benevolent course, and by his indefatigable exertions

and promptitude of action, many more were added to the list of the

rescued. At length the important case of James Somerset occurred;

a case which is said to have been selected, at the mutual desire of

Lord Mansfield and Mr. Sharp, in order to bring the great question

involved to a clear legal issue. Somerset had been brought to

England by his master, and left there. Afterwards his master

sought to apprehend him and send him off to Jamaica, for sale. Mr.

Sharp, as usual, at once took the negro’s case in hand, and

employed counsel to defend him. Lord Mansfield intimated that the

case was of such general concern, that he should take the opinion

of all the judges upon it. Mr. Sharp now felt that he would have

to contend with all the force that could be brought against him,

but his resolution was in no wise shaken. Fortunately for him, in

this severe struggle, his exertions had already begun to tell:

increasing interest was taken in the question, and many eminent

legal gentlemen openly declared themselves to be upon his side.

 

The cause of personal liberty, now at stake, was fairly tried

before Lord Mansfield, assisted by the three justices,—and tried

on the broad principle of the essential and constitutional right of

every man in England to the liberty of his person, unless forfeited

by the law. It is unnecessary here to enter into any account of

this great trial; the arguments extended to a great length, the

cause being carried over to another term,—when it was adjourned

and re-adjourned,—but at length judgment was given by Lord

Mansfield, in whose powerful mind so gradual a change had been

worked by the arguments of counsel, based mainly on Granville

Sharp’s tract, that he now declared the court to be so clearly of

one opinion, that there was no necessity for referring the case to

the twelve judges. He then declared that the claim of slavery

never can be supported; that the power claimed never was in use in

England, nor acknowledged by the law; therefore the man James

Somerset must be discharged. By securing this judgment Granville

Sharp effectually abolished the Slave Trade until then carried on

openly in the streets of Liverpool and London. But he also firmly

established the glorious axiom, that as soon as any slave sets his

foot on English ground, that moment he becomes free; and there can

be no doubt that this great decision of Lord Mansfield was mainly

owing to Mr. Sharp’s firm, resolute, and intrepid prosecution of

the cause from the beginning to the end.

 

It is unnecessary further to follow the career of Granville Sharp.

He continued to labour indefatigably in all good works. He was

instrumental in founding the colony of Sierra Leone as an asylum

for rescued negroes. He laboured to ameliorate the condition of

the native Indians in the American colonies. He agitated the

enlargement and extension of the political rights of the English

people; and he endeavoured to effect the abolition of the

impressment of seamen. Granville held that the British seamen, as

well as the African negro, was entitled to the protection of the

law; and that the fact of his choosing a seafaring life did not in

any way cancel his rights and privileges as an Englishman—first

amongst which he ranked personal freedom. Mr. Sharp also laboured,

but ineffectually, to restore amity between England and her

colonies in America; and when the fratricidal war of the American

Revolution was entered on, his sense of integrity was so scrupulous

that, resolving not in any way to be concerned in so unnatural a

business, he resigned his situation at the Ordnance Office.

 

To the last he held to the great object of his life—the abolition

of slavery. To carry on this work, and organize the efforts of the

growing friends of the cause, the Society for the Abolition of

Slavery was founded, and new men, inspired by Sharp’s example and

zeal, sprang forward to help him. His energy became theirs, and

the self-sacrificing zeal in which he had so long laboured single-handed, became at length transfused into the nation itself. His

mantle fell upon Clarkson, upon Wilberforce, upon Brougham, and

upon Buxton, who laboured as he had done, with like energy and

stedfastness of purpose, until at length slavery was abolished

throughout the British dominions. But though the names last

mentioned may be more frequently identified with the triumph of

this great cause, the chief merit unquestionably belongs to

Granville Sharp. He was encouraged by none of the world’s huzzas

when he entered upon his work. He stood alone, opposed to the

opinion of the ablest lawyers and the most rooted prejudices of the

times; and alone he fought out, by his single exertions, and at his

individual expense, the most memorable battle for the constitution

of this country and the liberties of British subjects, of which

modern times afford a record. What followed was mainly the

consequence of his indefatigable constancy. He lighted the torch

which kindled other minds, and it was handed on until the

illumination became complete.

 

Before the death of Granville Sharp, Clarkson had already turned

his attention to the question of Negro Slavery. He had even

selected it for the subject of a college Essay; and his mind became

so possessed by it that he could not shake it off. The spot is

pointed out near Wade’s Mill, in Hertfordshire, where, alighting

from his horse one day, he sat down disconsolate on the turf by the

road side, and after long thinking, determined to devote himself

wholly to the work. He translated his Essay from Latin into

English, added fresh illustrations, and published it. Then fellow

labourers gathered round him. The Society for Abolishing the Slave

Trade, unknown to him, had already been formed, and when he heard

of it he joined it. He sacrificed all his prospects in life to

prosecute this cause. Wilberforce was selected to lead in

parliament; but upon Clarkson chiefly devolved the labour of

collecting and arranging the immense mass of evidence offered in

support of the abolition. A remarkable instance of Clarkson’s

sleuth-hound sort of perseverance may be mentioned. The abettors

of slavery, in the course of their defence of the system,

maintained that only such negroes as were captured in battle were

sold as slaves, and if not so sold, then they were reserved for a

still more frightful doom in their own country. Clarkson knew of

the slave-hunts conducted by the slave-traders, but had no

witnesses to prove it. Where was one to be found? Accidentally, a

gentleman whom he met on one of his journeys informed him of a

young sailor, in whose company he had been about a year before, who

had been actually engaged in one of such slave-hunting expeditions.

The gentleman did not know his name, and could but indefinitely

describe his person. He did not know where he was, further than

that he belonged to a ship of war in ordinary, but at what port he

could not tell. With this mere glimmering of information, Clarkson

determined to produce this man as a witness. He visited personally

all the seaport towns where ships in ordinary lay; boarded and

examined every ship without success, until he came to the very LAST

port, and found the young man, his prize, in the very LAST ship

that remained to be visited. The young man proved to be one of his

most valuable and effective witnesses.

 

During several years Clarkson conducted a correspondence with

upwards of four hundred persons, travelling more than thirty-five

thousand miles during the same time in search of evidence. He was

at length disabled and exhausted by illness, brought on by his

continuous exertions; but he was not borne from the field until his

zeal had fully awakened the public mind, and excited the ardent

sympathies of all good men on behalf of the slave.

 

After years of protracted struggle, the slave trade was abolished.

But still another great achievement remained to be accomplished—

the abolition of slavery itself throughout the British dominions.

And here again determined energy won the day. Of the leaders in

the cause, none was more distinguished than Fowell Buxton, who took

the position formerly occupied by Wilberforce in the House of

Commons. Buxton was a dull, heavy boy, distinguished for his

strong self-will, which first exhibited itself in violent,

domineering, and headstrong obstinacy. His father died when he was

a child; but fortunately he had a wise mother, who trained his will

with great care, constraining him to obey, but encouraging the

habit of deciding and acting for himself in matters which might

safely be left to him. His mother believed that a strong will,

directed upon worthy objects, was a valuable manly quality if

properly guided, and she acted accordingly. When others about her

commented on the boy’s self-will, she would merely say, “Never

mind—he is self-willed now—you will see it will turn out well in

the end.” Fowell learnt very little at school, and was regarded as

a dunce and an idler. He got other boys to do his exercises for

him, while he romped and scrambled about. He returned home at

fifteen, a great, growing, awkward lad, fond only of boating,

shooting, riding, and field sports,—spending his time principally

with the gamekeeper, a man possessed of a good heart,—an

intelligent observer of life and nature, though he could neither

read nor write. Buxton had excellent raw material in him, but he

wanted culture, training, and development. At this juncture of his

life, when his habits were being formed for good or evil, he was

happily thrown into the society of the Gurney family, distinguished

for their fine social qualities not less than for their

intellectual culture and public-spirited philanthropy. This

intercourse with the Gurneys, he used afterwards to say, gave the

colouring to his life. They encouraged his efforts at self-culture; and when he went to the University of Dublin and gained

high honours there, the animating passion in his mind, he said,

“was to carry back to them the prizes which they prompted and

enabled me to win.” He married one of the daughters of the family,

and started in life, commencing as a clerk to his uncles Hanbury,

the London brewers. His power of will, which made him so difficult

to deal with as a boy, now formed the backbone of his character,

and made him most indefatigable and energetic in whatever he

undertook. He threw his whole strength and bulk right down upon

his work; and the great giant—“Elephant Buxton” they called him,

for he stood some six feet four in height—became one of the most

vigorous and practical of