“‘What!’ cries our good people here, ’Negro slaves in Boston!  It cannot be.’  It is nevertheless true.  For though the Bostonians have grounded their rebellion on the ‘immutable laws of nature,’ yet, notwithstanding their resolves about freedom in their Town-meetings, they actually have in town 2,000 Negro slaves."[364]

These trying and exasperating circumstances were but the friendly precursors of a spirit of universal liberty.

In England the decision of Lord Mansfield in the Sommersett[365] case had encouraged the conscientious few who championed the cause of the slave.  Charles Stewart, Esq., of Boston, Mass., had taken to London with him his Negro slave, James Sommersett.  The Negro was seized with a sickness in the British metropolis, and was thereupon abandoned by his master.  He afterwards regained his health, and secured employment.  His master, learning of his whereabouts, had him arrested, and placed in confinement on board the vessel “Ann and Mary,” Capt.  John Knowls, commander, then lying in the Thames, but soon to sail for Jamaica, where Sommersett was to be sold.

“On the 3rd of Dec., 1771, affidavits were made by Thomas Walklin, Elizabeth Cade, and John Marlow, that James Sommersett, a Negro, was confined in irons on board a ship called the Ann and Mary, John Knowls commander, lying in the Thames, and bound for Jamaica.  Lord Mansfield, upon the prayer of the above subscribers, allowed a writ of habeas corpus, requiring the return of the body of Sommersett before his lordship with an explanation of the cause of his detention.  On the 9th of Dec., Capt.  Knowls produced the body of Sommersett in Court.  Lord Mansfield, after a preliminary examination, referred the matter to the Court of King’s Bench, and, therefore, took sureties, and bound Sommersett over ’till ’the 2nd day of the next Hillary term.’  At the time appointed the defendant with counsel, the reputed master of the Negro man Sommersett, and Capt.  John Knowls, appeared before the court.  Capt.  Knowls recited the reasons that led him to detain Sommersett:  whereupon the counsel for the latter asked for time in which to prepare an argument against the return.  Lord Mansfield gave them until the 7th of February.  At the time appointed Mr. Sergeant Davy and Mr. Sergeant Glynn argued against the return, and had further argument ‘postponed’ till Easter term,’ when Mr. Mansfield, Mr. Alleyne, and Mr. Hargrave argued on the same side.  ’The only question before us is whether the cause on the return is sufficient.  If it is, the Negro must be remanded; if it is not, he must be discharged.  The return states that the slave departed and refused to serve, whereupon he was kept to be sold abroad.  So high an act of dominion must be recognized by the law of the country where it is used.  The power of a master over his slave has been exceedingly different in different countries.  The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable