Though the Heavens May Fall

I've just finished reading Though the Heavens May Fall. The book tells the story of the 1772 Somerset decision which found that slaves brought by their masters to England were free there - as British law did not recognize slavery. Because there were about 15,000 enslaved Africans in Britain at the time of the decision, its effects were significant. Moreover, by recognizing the principle that English common law disfavored slavery, - and describing slavery as "odious" - the decision struck a moral blow in favor of the institution's abolition. The book's title is derived from the maxim: fiat justicia, ruat coelum - let justice be done, though the heavens may fall.

The decision itself was delivered orally and its essence is only a paragraph in length. It is worth quoting:

The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasion, and time itself from which it was created, is erased from memory. It is so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from a decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England, and therefore the black must be discharged.

Of course, as there were no official court reporters at the time, the author notes that this is only one of several versions of the decision which survive.

The book opens windows on the legal process in eighteenth century England and the lives of two fascinating men: Lord Mansfield, the judge who decided the case and Granville Sharp, the abolitionist crusader who sponsored the legal challenge. We might have learned more about James Somerset, the man whose petition for habeas corpus, filed as he was being dragged to the sugar cane/killing fields of the West Indies, was the subject of the decision. Nonetheless, the book - although poorly edited - is well worth a read. Additional information about the black presence in Britain is available here. And another recently published book advances the theory that the Somerset decision was an important cause of the American Revolution.