Bio: Granville Sharp, Abolitionist and American Sympathiser
Our President & CEO, Harvey Morgan, shares the story of Granville Sharp. He was an important figure in the abolition movement in Britain but was also sympathetic to the American Revolution. The story is significant to Harvey as they were both pupils at Durham School.
Born in Durham on November 10th 1735, Sharp was one of fourteen children from a clerical family. His father was Thomas Sharp, Archdeacon of Northumberland and his grandfather was John Sharp Archbishop of York. He attended Durham School until he was in his mid teens when he left for London to be an apprentice for a linen draper where his intrigue and desire to learn spurred him on to teach himself Greek and Hebrew so he could discuss theological matters with a Jewish colleague. Sharp also conducted genealogy research for Henry Willoughby, one of his masters, which lead to Willoughby taking his place in the House of Lords after his claim to the barony of Willoughby de Parnham was heard.
However, Granville Sharp will be remembered for his abolition work which first started in 1765 when he was visiting his brother’s surgery and he met Jonathan Strong. Strong was a young, black slave from the Caribbean who had been beaten so badly by his master that he was left nearly blind and thrown out of the household because he could no longer fulfil his tasks. His injuries required four months of treatment in hospital which Sharp and his brother paid for and found him employment as an errand runner with a friend. Two years later, Strong’s former master saw him in the street and planned to sell him to a Jamaican planter for £30 and he was captured by two slave catchers who were to ship him to Jamaica. Fortunately, Jonathan managed to get word to Granville who persuaded the Lord Mayor to convene all the parties to settle the matter. The Lord Mayor judged that there was no clear reason for imprisonment and Jonathan Strong was freed.
Strong’s former master, David Lisle, sought revenge on Sharp and initiated legal action claiming £200 in damages and challenged him to a duel. Sharp told Lisle that he could expect satisfaction in the courts. After consulting lawyers, Sharp found that the law stood in favour of the master’s rights to his slaves as property, even on English soil. So infuriated by the barbaric English laws and its disregard to natural rights, he committed the next two years to studying law and its application to the liberty of the individual. Lisle disappeared from records but the man he sold Jonathan Strong to continued his legal battle until the court dismissed his case and ordered him to pay damages for wasting the court’s time but, more importantly, Jonathan Strong was a free man.
Granville Sharp’s involvement in the Strong case raised his reputation in England and he published “A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery” which was one of the first English publications attacking slavery. In it he wrote of sentiments that would later be echoed by the great Abraham Lincoln such as the laws of nature grant equality to all humans regardless of any artificial laws imposed by society. He also decried salve contracts because the liberty of a man cannot be matched in value by anything, true sentiments that underpins the Constitution of the United States of America.
Sharp’s moment came three years later in 1772 in the now infamous Somerset v Stewart case in which he supported the plight of James Somerset, an indigenous African who was sold as a slave in the American colony of Virginia and later brought back to England when he escaped from his master, only to be caught two months later. Sharp, now well read on English law in relation to individual liberty, lead the charge with a group of lawyers who gave their service pro bono despite donations from the public, of which it was very popular amongst. Somerset’s master, Charles Stewart, however was backed by the West Indian planters and traders but after 6 months of deliberate procrastination, William Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, declared that slavery could not be legal in England because the laws did not allow for it. However, this ruling only meant that people couldn’t be forced overseas into bondage and that a slave would become free the moment they set foot on English territory. The ruling did not outlaw slavery in Britain but it was seen as one of the most significant events in the campaign for abolition.
Over the next 15 years, Granville became synonymous with the fight against slavery and was consulted by many in legal battles against slave owners. With growing support for abolition, Sharp and a group of colleagues established the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade with the committee unanimously agreeing that Granville Sharp would be the chair. Sharp, alongside friend Thomas Clarkson felt they needed support in parliament for their movement and persuaded the more celebrated William Wilberforce to be their spokesperson amongst the politicians.
One great example of Sharp’s ability to see the bigger picture was noting that Britain was only one part of the equation in the slave trade and that influence in the increasingly unsettled colonies in America would be needed to achieve abolition. For some time, Sharp wrote to a Quaker abolitionist in America by the name of Anthony Benezet and their correspondence inspired a physician in Philadelphia, Benjamin Rush, who later became one of the founding fathers of the newly formed United States of America and a signatory on the Declaration of Independence. Granville would send pro-abolition pamphlets to Rush which inspired them to refine their legal and moral arguments for the total abolition of slavery over many years of correspondence.
Rush would also write Sharp about the ongoing dynamics in America and the growing case for independence. Indeed, Granville also sympathised with the American cause and believed in peace in America with the added clause that they were entitled to “Equitable Representation”, a saying that would be later echo by the demand of “no taxation without representation”. Furthermore, once he realised that supplies were being sent to America to fight the rebels, facilitated by his job at the Ordinance Office, he took a leave of absence in protest of what he referred to as a “bloody, unjust war against my fellow subjects”. After his resignation, Granville continued his push for reform in addition to his religious and theological interest and his efforts lead to the Bishops of the USA being consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury and become the first President of the British. In addition he also became a noted grammarian and his work was important to the Unitarian doctrine in religion.
In his later years, he would see Royal Assent given to the Act of Abolition in 1807, the first major peace of abolition legislation passed which outlawed slavery in Britain and encouraged British action to influence other countries to end their commitment to slavery. On hearing the news, Sharp fell to his knees and gave a prayer of thanksgiving. Now 71, Granville had outlasted many of his opponents and colleagues in the abolition movement and he was seen as the grand old man of abolition. Although Granville saw the introduction of the Act of Abolition, he would not see the final Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 which was given Royal Assent 20 years after his death in 1813.
The story of the abolition movement is one that we should neither forget nor take for granted and, while we think of more celebrated abolitionists like Abraham Lincoln and William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp should be recognised as one of the main driving forces in the early fight against slavery and his leadership in these noted legal cases certainly lead to the introduction of legislation which lead to the end of slavery in the United Kingdom and beyond. He also stands as a symbol of many values that bind the UK and USA today. With many people challenging the progress that the West has made with regards racial equality, we are still one of the only civilisation that has gone so far in the abolition and prohibition of slavery and I feel proud to share heritage with one of the unsung heroes who lead that movement.
Another Sharp Fact:
Four of Sharp’s siblings moved to London to pursue their careers and one of his brothers. William, would go on to become surgeon to King George III. They met every day and would often indulge in their love of music. Granville personally had a keen interest in music and played a number of instruments including a double flute, of his own making, and would often sign of notes “G#” (G Sharp). He also had a wonderful bass voice and was described as “the best in Britain” by George III himself.