The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1875-11-11

The decision in the case OF the negro
Somere,t by Lord Mansfield, Chief JUS
tice of the Court Of the Kings Bench,
10 the effect that slavery canno; exist III
ENGLAND. was not delivered unit! the
wear lT72. At that time one hundred
thousand negroes year were kidnapped
!, Africa and carried into slavery in the
West Indies, then chiefly British colon
les. The decision Of Lord Mansh eiu;
however. was not the first OF its klhd
in the order of time. More than ten years
before the Admiralty Court OF Glasg'"
liberated negro slave who had Dee"
;pnor,ed into Scotland; and seventy
wears before Justice Holt ruled thaI Is
.,,p..s ~ negro comes into EhSianu
III. i free: one may be villain III
/ EngIsnd but not II slave" and later
| .Jn England there is no such thing as
/ slave. and IA human beng was never con,
sidered n chattel TO be sold fora price
However. that may have been, IL Is '!e
,,c, tbot n statute was passed IN loir
Jnri,g tbe reign ot Edward VI, only
hrn,bcr rs well as regal predecessor o!
O,rrn Mary and Elizabeth, which proyld,
ed that any runaway, or one who llTc"
idle for three DAYS. should be brought be-
fore the Justice, marked on the breast
with " with n hot iron and adjudgcd
the slave for two years oil the man VII"
bought HIM. His owner was bound |"
rive nm brcad, water ana small peer
but not flesh meat, and was Empowered To
whip him, chain HIM W ortherwISe force
him to work. In case the slave absent
cd himself for a fortnight he was to be
branded with IN ; on the forehead or
check and niudged slave forever. y
second escape was made felony. Such
81 sIuyc might BE- lawfully compelled To-
wear an iron ring ou hi, neck, his leg or
hi, arm. Further, this mercliul slatut"
provided that any child who, beng
bound apprentice, ran away from HI
master, should become a slave, tn
statute continued i'll operation until the
restoration OF the Stuarls In 1860, when
,ertdom in England was put an end TO by
statute.
Whatever may be said rs to the cN-
l,tcncc OF slavery in England, that coun-
try was Jealous in prosecuting tn" N!Gy"
trade for the benefit of the rest Of the
world. England took part IN supplying
the spanlards with slaves i'll laG2, pre-.
viousiy to which negroes had been land
ed in England, and there sold, IN l1o3.
Queen Elizabeth Is charged with having
shared the proitsiwith Sir. John law-
l,ins. the lr-t Englishman who command
ed irregular slave trader. From that time
to 1888 the English were active in sup
plyiug slaves To their own co.OnIeS and
those of Spain. Some OF the American
colonies demonstrated against the trade,
but without success, rs the mother
country encouraged it. New England
vessels were active lave carriers, and IN
Difference 10 that interest, when the
American constitution was formed III
1883. Congress was prohibited from III
terdcting the traffic before loUS, at
which time il was abolished. The
Friends have been the earliest and most
consistent opponents OF slavery and the
slave t!adc. The sentiment OF hostility
to slavery, was, however, shared in the
eighteenth century by many literary
men, philosophers and statesmen, vii"
labored with zeal for the suppression
Of the system. OF thr-" th" most noted
was Granville Sharpe through who"
influence the decision of Lord Mans.
field above rc.crrcd to was gwen.
miles Mr.. Wilberiorce's proposal t"
put an end to slavery WAS rejected 10y
the House of Commons; bus Austria
had declared against the traffic sixteen
years before, and the French had follow
that example IN 1874. Not until lSol
was the slave trade abandoned 10y statute,
m Englnud-to be- continued twenty
seven years longer as Il colonial in,t.tu-
tion. In ISlj, before Waterloo, NaPo-
leon renewed the French abolition.
England made treaties against the s.ar"
trade in 1917 with SPAN, III 1878 with
the Netherlands, and in lo2G with Brazil
England i, now negotiating an anti
slavery treaty with the Sultan Of Innzi-
b.r In no case, however, was such "
mass OF slaves freed at one time ~ IN the
United States al the close Of oar late
civil war.