Granville Sharp
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Granville Sharp was a British scholar, devout Christian, philanthropist and one of the first campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade in Britain. Born in Durham, he initially worked as a civil servant in the Board of Ordnance. His involvement in abolitionism began in 1767 when he defended a severely injured slave from Barbados in a legal case against his master. Increasingly devoted to the cause, he continually sought test cases against the legal justifications for slavery, and in 1769 he published the first tract in England that explicitly attacked the concept of slavery.
Granville Sharp
The Sharp Family, by Johann Zoffany, 1779–81, National Portrait Gallery, London. The family musical ensemble are pictured on their barge, Apollo, with All Saints', Fulham in the background. Granville Sharp is the seated male figure in the centre.
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield
View from Granville Town looking north to Bullom Shore from Voyages to the River Sierra Leone by John Matthews, 1788
Abolitionism in the United Kingdom
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Abolitionism in the United Kingdom was the movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to end the practice of slavery, whether formal or informal, in the United Kingdom, the British Empire and the world, including ending the Atlantic slave trade. It was part of a wider abolitionism movement in Western Europe and the Americas.
1787 Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion designed by Josiah Wedgwood for the British anti-slavery campaign
Title page of a published lecture against slavery by Joseph Ivimey
Portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Murray, the great-nieces of Chief Justice Lord Mansfield living at Kenwood House.
Ignatius Sancho (c1729–1780), an escaped slave, gained fame as an active 18th-century British abolitionist. He opened a popular shop in Mayfair and mixed with influential people. He was the first person of African descent to vote.