Granville Sharp (1735-1813) was one of the earliest abolitionists.
Sharp was involved with the Mansfield Ruling that helped free slaves from the colonies in England, I have included a brief overview of the case below.
An enslaved man James Somerset came to England with his master Charles Stewart from Boston, where Stewart was a customs officer. Somerset ran away but was brought back to his master. His master punished him and sent him away on a ship for Jamaica. Sharp intervened and got the court involved with this matter. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield claimed habeas corpus, which means that the arrested person must be brought to court before being imprisoned or punished. Somerset had to return to England following the Judges orders.
The ultimate result of the case was the Mansfield Ruling came in 1772. The ruling meant any slave who was brought to England from the colonies could not be forced to return to the colony as a slave. This freed James Somerset from a life of enslavement in England.
Phillis Wheatley’s trip was a year after this decision. She may have come to England aware of this new ruling and hoping to secure her freedom. But there is no record of her stating this.
"A slave owner could not have thought of a more dangerous tour guide than Granville Sharp for an enslaved celebrity newly arrived from the colonies".
-From Vincent Caretta's novel 'Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage'. Published in 2011 by The University of Georgia Press. On page 128.
The prevailing justification for slavery was an idea that black people were not human as they couldn’t produce their own writing and literature. Wheatley destroyed this notion as a talented poet and author.
Sharpe was a firm believer in the abolition of slavery and paraded Wheatley as an exemplary case for the freedom of black people. She was a revolutionary thinker and Sharpe believed that she was evidence that black people could produce their own original ideas and were therefore human.
Letter from Phillis Wheatley to David Wooster, 18 October 1773
"Grenville Sharp Esqr. who attended me to the Tower & Show'd the Lions, Panthers, Tigers, &c. the Horse Armoury, small Armoury, the Crowns, Sceptres, Diadems, the Font for christening the Royal Family. Saw Westminster Abbey, British Museum Coxe's Museum, Saddler's wells, Greenwich Hospital, Park and Chapel, The royal Observatory at Greenwich, &c. &c. too many things & Places to trouble you with in a Letter”.
This video is a really useful explanation of the Somerset case and about the life of James Somerset.
The full letter is accessible with this link below! Im very grateful for the Massachusetts Historical Society for allowing me to quote these letters as well as having loads of primary sources and educational information on Wheatley available for free.
More information on the Mansfield ruling here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/slave_free.htm
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