Extract from history on the net...................fascinating!

It had been the custom of the Virginian or West Indian planter, when he left his tobacco or sugar estate for a holiday in England, to wear very broad hats and very wide trousers and to be accompanied by those slaves who used to bring him his coffee in the early morning, to brush away the blue-tailed fly from his siesta, and to mix him rum and water when required. The existence of such attendants was some what anomalous in this island, and friends would often observe with a knowing air it was lucky for him that Sambo was not up to English law. That law, indeed, was undefined. Slavery had existed in England and had died out of itself, in what manner and at what time no one could precisely say. It was, however, a popular impression that no man could be kept as a slave if he were once baptised. The planters enjoyed the same kind of reputation which the nabobs afterwards obtained: a yellow skin and a bad heart were at one time always associated with each other. The negroes were often encouraged to abscond, and to offer themselves before the font. They obtained as sponsors respectable well-to-do men, who declared that they would stand by their god-sons if it came to a case at law. The planters were in much distress, and in order to know the worst went to Messrs. York and Talbot, the Attorney and Solicitor General for the time being, and requested an opinion. The opinion of York and Talbot was this: that slaves breathing English air did not become free; that slaves on being baptised did not become free; and that their masters could force them back to the plantations when they pleased.

The planters, finding that the law was on their side, at once acted on their opinion. Advertisements appeared in the newspapers offering rewards for runaway slaves. Negroes might be seen being dragged along the streets in open day: they were bought and sold at the Poultry Compter, an old city jail. Free men of colour were no longer safe; kidnapping became a regular pursuit.

There was a young man named Granville Sharp, whose benevolent heart was touched to the quick by the abominable scenes which he had witnessed more than once. He could not believe that such was really English law. He examined the question for himself, and, after long search, discovered precedents which overthrew the opinion of the two great lawyers. He published a pamphlet in which he stated his case; and not content with writing, he also acted in the cause, aiding and abetting negroes to escape. On one occasion a Virginian had disposed of an unruly slave to a skipper bound for the West Indies. The vessel was lying in the river; the unfortunate negro was chained to the mast; when Granville Sharp climbed over the side with a writ of Habeas Corpus in his hand. James Somerset's body was given up, and with its panting, shuddering, hopeful, fearful soul inside, was produced before a Court of Justice that Lord Mansfield might decide to whom it belonged. The case was argued at three sittings, and excited much interest throughout the land. It ended in the liberation of the slave.

Several hundred negroes were at once bowed out by their masters into the street, and wandered about, sleeping in glass-houses; seated on the door-steps of their former homes, weeping, and cursing Granville Sharp. It was resolved to do something for them, and a grant of land was obtained from the native chiefs at the mouth of the Sierra Leone River: a company was formed; four hundred destitute negroes were sent out; and, as if there were no women in Africa, fifty "unfortunates" were sent out with them. The society of these ladies was not conducive to the moral or physical well-being of the emigrants, eighty-four of whom died before they sighted land, and eighty-six in the first four months after landing. The philanthropists thus produced a middle passage at which a slave trader would have been aghast. In a short time the white women were dead, and the Granvilles, as they are traditionally called upon the coast, adopted savage life. But the settlement was re-peopled from another source. In the American Revolutionary War, large numbers of negroes had flocked to the royal standard, attracted by the proclamations of the British generals. These runaway slaves were sent to Nova Scotia, where they soon began to complain; the climate was not to their taste, and they had not received the lands which had been promised them. They were then shipped off to Sierra Leone. They landed singing hymns, and pitched their tents on the site of the present town. The settlement was afterwards recruited with negroes in thousands out of slave ships; but the American element may yet be detected in the architecture of the native houses and in the speech of the inhabitants.

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There are so many fascinating stories in Black history!