Page:The American Slave Trade (Spears).djvu/202

 

 England Led the Way by Establishing a Colony at Sierra Leone to Provide a Home for Negroes Carried from the United States during the Revolutionary War — The Enterprise Saved by the Sturdy Maroons — Origin of the American Society for Colonizing Free People of Color — Life of the Colonists at Cape Mesurado — The Nation of Liberia Organized — An Ape of Philanthropy.

Lord Mansfield declared on June 22, 1772, that the negro Somerset must be set free a new question arose for the consideration of the ruling race. It was a question of growing importance, as time went on, and it was eventually transferred to America, where it became, at Jast, for a time, the most serious subject of discussion before the people of the United States: What shall be done with the freed man?

It was easy to provide for Somerset and all those who were liberated, one at a time, under Lord Mansfield's order, but after our Revolutionary war the English had a larger share in the problem, because of the number of American slaves they had carried away during that war.

Most of the slaves thus taken had been landed in Nova Scotia, where there were no slaves. The negroes would have been more comfortable in the