Page:Copley 1844 A History of Slavery and its Abolition 2nd Ed.djvu/230

212 dragged to a boat lying in the Thames. There he was gagged, tied with a cord, and conveyed to a ship hound for Jamaica, where he was to be sold as a slave. This base action took place near the garden of a humane lady, (Mrs. Banks, mother of Sir Joseph Banks, the celebrated traveller and naturalist.) Her servants, hearing the cries of the unfortunate man, hastened to his assistance, but the boat was gone. On informing their mistress of the circumstance, she sent for Mr. Sharp, who by this time was generally known as the friend of the helpless Africans, and putting the cause into his hands, declared her willingness to bear the expense of bringing the delinquents to justice. With great difficulty Mr. Sharp obtained legal authority for bringing back Lewis from Gravesend, just as the vessel was on the point of sailing. An action was then commenced against the person who had employed the two watermen, who defended it on the plea that Lewis was his slave, and as such his property. It was decided that our law admits of no such property. It would be impossible to detail the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Sharp, or the number of victims he rescued from the holds of vessels, and other places of confinement and concealment, some when they were just on the point of sailing, and when an hour or two would have borne them for ever from the shores of liberty. Still, however, the mind of the good man was not at rest. It was not enough for him, that many individual instances of rescue occurred. He was anxious to have the question settled on the broad ground, "Whether a slave, by coming into England, became free?" An opportunity soon occurred of trying this great question. James