Granville Sharp

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Granville Sharp

Granville Sharp (born November 10, 1735 in Durham , † July 6, 1813 in London ) was a self-taught lawyer, an opponent of slavery and one of the founders of the British abolitionist movement.

biography

Sharp was born the ninth of 14 children of the theologian and writer Thomas Sharp. His grandfather was the Archbishop of York , John Sharp . Sharp is also considered an excellent flute player and a connoisseur of ancient Greek and Hebrew . His grave is in the graveyard of All Saints Church in Fulham, London. A memorial stone has been erected in Westminster Abbey.

Foundation of the abolitionist society

His fight against slavery began when he stood up for the abused slave Jonathan Strong in 1765 and finally won his freedom in court in 1772, also in the case of James Somerset . He was also informed about the fate of the slaves in the Atlantic slave trade through the former slave Olaudah Equiano . In 1783, Sharp tried in vain in the trial of Captain Luke Collingwood, who had thrown 132 sick and weakened slaves overboard on the Atlantic passage in order to collect the sum insured, to convert the fraud proceedings into a murder charge. Together with Thomas Clarkson , he finally founded the Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1787 . The attempt to create a safe place for freed slaves in Sierra Leone with Granville Town failed. The diverse activities of the abolitionists contributed significantly to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.

Web links

  • John Simkin: Granville Sharp . Spartacus Educational, September 1997, updated August 2014 (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Strong, Somerset and Sharp - liberating black slaves in England . Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section, on history.ac.uk, October 2005, accessed June 22, 2017.
  2. ↑ Mathias Mesenhöller: And no one is the other's servant! In: GEO 10/2007 p. 88ff.
personal data
SURNAME Sharp, Granville
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English opponent of slavery and founder of the abolitionism movement
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1735
PLACE OF BIRTH Durham
DATE OF DEATH July 6, 1813
Place of death London