Granville Sharpe
Abolitionist -- Philanthropist
TIMELINE1735 - Born November 10 at Durham, England; father was archdeacon, Sharpe attends grammar school in Durham
1748 - Sharpe moves to London, apprentice to Quaker merchant (linendraping); Sharpe teaches himself Greek and Hebrew
1758 - Takes first post in civil service, minor clerk
1765 - Publishes first written work, becomes involved with John Strong case
1769 - Publishes England's first anti-slavery work, A Representation of the injustice and dangerous tendency of admitting the least claim of private property in the persons of men, in England, etc,
1772 - Sharpe's legal case against slavery decided in his favor; Judge writes "Charter of Freedom"
Granville Sharpe's formative years as an abolitionist were between 1765 and 1770. Sharpe had a brother who was a doctor in London. One day on a visit to the office, Sharpe met a black slave, Johnathon Strong, who had been beaten badly by his owner/master. The master had left the slave for dead.
Sharpe's brother helped the slave recover, but two years late the master spotted his slave. Surprised by Stong's survival, the master Lisle decided to make more of his investment and exact a revenge on the slave Strong. Lisle secretly sold Stong to another slave owner from the Caribbean, Kerr. The two conspired to have Strong kidnapped and sent back into slavery in Jamaica.
Strong realized his position and appealed to Sharpe for help. Sharpe brought his case before the Lord Mayor of London, who decided that Strong was a free man. Though the slaveowners threatened legal action and violence, nothing came of it and Strong was allowed to stay in England. Unfortunately Strong died at the age of twenty-five.
Sharpe was involved in another legal case that resolved in 1772. The English Court Chief Justice Lord Mansfield wrote a judgement which is historically called the Charter of Freedom. In his decision, Mansfield wrote, "England is a soil whose air is deemed too pure for slaves to breathe in."
Sharpe's 1769 anti-slavery publication provided legal arguments that attacked the ruling made by Yorke and Talbot in 1729 that slaves remain the property of their owners in England as well as in the colonies. Between 1765 and 1770, Sharpe also began defending "shanghai-ed" slaves and former slaves. The courts did not yet grant Sharpe a broad anti-slavery ruling, but the individual cases were usually decided in Sharpe's favor.
Sharpe also was involved in creating a colony in Africa for re-patriated slaves. Later known as Freetown, the colony was in present day Sierra Leone. Though Olaudeah Equiano realized the colony was not well planned and broke away from the colonists, 397 blacks indeed sailed to Sierra Leone. Ten years later the colony was a failure, though this did not affect Sharpe's reputation during his lifetime.
Sharpe was a much more modern thinker than his pro-slavery contemoraries; at the same time he continued to believe that Africans could be saved by Christian evangelism. He worked closely with Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce later. Sharpe opposed the British war in 1776 with the United States, and later helped found the American Episcopalian Church.
Granville Sharpe, English Abolitionist
