Mansfield's judgment of 22 June 1772
- When
- 22 June 1772
- Where
- Court of King's Bench, England
- Part of
- Somersett's Case
On 22 June 1772 Mansfield ruled that a master could not carry his slave out of England by force, a judgment on the legality of keeping slaves in England.
Finally, on 22 June 1772, Mansfield gave his judgment in the Court of King's Bench, ruling that a master could not carry his slave out of England by force. The judgment related to the right of a slave on English soil not to be forcibly removed from the country and sent to Jamaica for sale. Mansfield is best known for this decision on the legality of keeping slaves in England, and it is considered a significant step in recognising the illegality of slavery, though slavery in the British Empire was not completely abolished until 1834.
Sources
- William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-25
- Somerset v Stewart Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-19
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.