yr9_Granville_Sharp

=__**Granville Sharp **__  By Laura Hernando = 

**Details about my life:**
I was born on the 10th of November 1735 in Durham, North-East England. I am the 20th son of the archdeacon Thomas Sharp, and the grandson of the Archbishop of York. I decided not to follow my father and grandfather, I didn't choose for a career in the Church of England. I was educated in the local grammar school until the age of 15. At this age, I became an apprenticeship in London as a linen-draper. During this time (while working, in my spare time) I taught himself Greek and Hebrew, and music. This job didn't sattisfy me, and in 1751 I obtained a job as a clergyman in the civil service. I published my first of many works in 1765. From this time on, I normally published one or more works during the space of one year. The subject of more than one of these, was biblical criticism or the slave trade.

**What caused my interest in the abolition of Slavery, and acts against slavery:**
I started to become interested in the abolition of slavery in 1765. While living with my brother (a surgeon), a black man named Jonathan Strong arrived at the house. This man had been severely injured by his master, David Lisle. Lisle had been dissatisfied with Strong's services and had consequently beaten him with a pistol and had thrown him out into the streets thinking he was dead. My brother and I took care for him during two years, during which time Strong told me that Lisle had been brought from Barbados to England.

After these two years and after Strong's recovery, Lisle paid two men to recapture him, for he had heard that he could still be sold for a large amount of money. When I found out about this I immediately argued against him. I took Lisle to court, claiming that as Strong was in England he was no longer a slave. In 1768 the court ruled in Strong's favour.The case received a lot of national-wide publicity, resulting as campaign against slavery.

In 1769 (not long after the court's decision), I published "//A Representation of the injustice and dangerous tendency of admitting the least claim of private property in the persons of men, in England, etc.",// this was the first major work of anti-slavery by a British author. This book contains many legal arguments against slavery, it argues against the ruling made by Yorke and Talbot in 1729 which establishes that a slaves remains the property of their owners in England as well as in England's colonies. A few years later, the arguments in my work were described as 'the rights of man'.

I then continued to take slave's masters to court, I succeeded in the cases of Mary Hylas, Thomas Lewis, and three other captured slaves. However in each case, the court refused to make a general statement about making all slaves free as soon as they arrived in England.

One of my most important cases took place in 1772, in the case f Jame Somerset. He was a slave that had run away from his master during a visit to London. His master captured him and tried to make him go back with him to Jamaica. Somerset had heard about my previous cases, and so contacted me to help him prove that he was a free man. This case resulted to be very profitable (not in terms of money), because the Judge who oversaw the case, Lord Chief Justice William Mansfield, concluded that masters couldn't legally force any slave to return to the colonies once they were in Britain.   In 1776, I produced four anti-slavery pamphlets.  In the 1780's, I supported a project in which, slaves that had fought for the British against the American's would be set free and sent to Sierra Leone, where they would be able to settle. They were promised wages, but were found in an absolute lack of resources. When I saw the situation, I wrote my "Short Sketch of temporary regulations... for the indeed settlement on the Grain Coast of Africa, near Sierra Leone". The book showed what should have been like. However, it all resulted disastrously. Sharp also attempted to make the colony work by making the Sierra Leone Company, this company provided the money to be able to build a new town for the settlers. This didn't work either. Because of this those who had been in favour of the resettlement such as Alaudah Equiano withdrew their support. The colony was affected by war and diseases, and so out of the 374 blck people that had come to the colony, only 60 remained. In conclusion the project didn't work.

Though many abolitionists would have stopped fighting for liberty after such a disgraceful attempt, I didn't, and in 1787 my friend Thomas Clarkson and I formed the "Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade". We persuaded William Wilberforce (a member of parliament) to be our spokesman. I gave Thomas Clarkson the responsibilty to collect information on the slave trade, this included interviewing 20000 sailors and getting equipment that shave been used in the slavery boats (equipment used as torture and punishment for slaves). With the companies help he published a pamphlet, "A summary view of the Slave trade and of the Probable Consequences of Its Abolition". I was seen by the committee as "the father of the movement", and was so given the position of Chairman. As a chairman I maintained relations with the French abolition society, "Les Amies des Noirs".

In 1807, the "Abolition of the Slave Trade Act" was finally made. Thomas Clarkson, Thomas Fowell Buxton and I joined to form the "Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery". I was not to see the final abolition of slavery.

I died in Fulham, south-west London, on the 6th of July 1813. I was buried in Fulham Churchyard.

I have produced a short video that summarizes my contributions to the Slave Trade:

media type="youtube" key="23CJGYXZ8K4&hl=en" height="355" width="425"

 ==<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif">**Why I am the most important abolitionist** : ==

I dedicated nearly my entire life to the abolition of the Slave Trade. I contributed immensely in raising awareness about the Slave Trade. I wrote and published numerous books and pamphlets. I fought in court for the freedom of slaves, I succeeded in many cases, and caused the media to focus on the abolition of slavery. I helped establish a legal precedent, that allowed the freedom of slaves. I supported and fought for new innovative methods and attempts for the integration of negro's, such as in Sierra Leone's colony.<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif"> I founded companies and groups that economically helped slaves, and that raised the awareness of high status people such as members of parliament. I also united the forces of many people, of french people, of white people and of black people. Without me, people wouldn't have been aware about how important it was to abolish the Slave Trade. No other abolishonist fought in court, and fought for legal precedents for all black people aswell as specific individuals. I fought and helped in funding many projects.

<span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif">Sources from: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REsharp.htm http://www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/sharp.htm http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/sharp_granville.shtml [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Sharp</span] http://www.antislavery.org/2007/campaigners%20gsharp.htm http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sierraleone.htm