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Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Human Slavery

by Steven M. Wise

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1103245,479 (4.13)11
The 1772 London trial of James Somerset, rescued from a ship bound for the West Indies slave markets, was a decisive turning point in history. As in the Scopes trial, two encompassing world views clashed in an event of passionate drama. Steven M. Wise, trial lawyer and legal historian, has uncovered layer upon layer of fascinating revelations in a case which threatened, according to slave owners, to bring the economy of the British Empire to a crashing halt. In a gripping narrative of Somerset's trial-and of the slave trials that led up to it-he sets the stage for the unexpected decision by the famously conservative judge, Lord Mansfield, which would lead to the abolition of slavery, both in England and the United States, and the end of the African slave trade.The characters in this great historical moment go beyond a screenwriter's dream: Somerset's novice attorneys arguing their first case; the fervent British abolitionist Granville Sharp, a cross between Ralph Nader and WilliamLloyd Garrison, who had brought case after case to court in an attempt to abolish slavery; the master's two-faced and skillful lawyer, who had recently argued before Mansfield that slavery could not exist in England; and finally, the greatest judge of his time, Lord Mansfield, whose own mulatto grand-niece, Dido Belle, was his slave.As the case drew to a close Lord Mansfield spoke these stirring words that continue to resound more than two centuries later: "Let Justice be done, though the Heavens may fall."A Merloyd Lawrence Book… (more)
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A thorough account of the Somerset case; Wise manages to make the very complex legal wrangling over the state of slaves in England into an eminently readable narrative. Excellently researched and cited too, which always helps. ( )
  JBD1 | Dec 10, 2014 |
On June 22, 1772, after hearing the arguments for and against the condition of Mr. Somersett being a personal slave (and therefore the property of Charles Steuart), Lord Mansfield finally declared in his judgment that no man had the right to buy or sell another man on English soil, and that no man could forcibly remove another from English soil against his will. In another words, once a foreign slave breathed English air, he was free to leave his life of servitude on his own accord.

Steven Wise’s Though the Heavens May Fall is not a book you can just barrel through. Normally, a 225-page book would be a cake walk for me to finish in 2 days, but this one requires more of the reader than just a passive stance. Wise’s historical research and nuanced approach to the case law urges the reader to pause and reflect on the nature of humanness, the validity of the feudal system, and how each country’s laws affect another’s. He also does a decent job of explaining habeas corpus law (which was lost on me in the beginning).

http://lifelongdewey.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/342-though-the-heavens-may-fall-by... ( )
1 vote NielsenGW | Jul 4, 2012 |
4019. Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Slavery, by Steven M. Wise (read 1 May 2005) This book, the first I think I have read this year which was first published in 2005, is a very good book, telling in excellent detail the story of the Somerset case, in which Lord Mansfield on 22 June 1772 held that there were no slaves in England--that a slave brought to England became free and could not be forced back to slavery. The book is meticulously researched, with such careful citation to cases, that it is a joy to read. The author's command of legal research is dazzling. This is a very fine book. ( )
  Schmerguls | Oct 15, 2007 |
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The 1772 London trial of James Somerset, rescued from a ship bound for the West Indies slave markets, was a decisive turning point in history. As in the Scopes trial, two encompassing world views clashed in an event of passionate drama. Steven M. Wise, trial lawyer and legal historian, has uncovered layer upon layer of fascinating revelations in a case which threatened, according to slave owners, to bring the economy of the British Empire to a crashing halt. In a gripping narrative of Somerset's trial-and of the slave trials that led up to it-he sets the stage for the unexpected decision by the famously conservative judge, Lord Mansfield, which would lead to the abolition of slavery, both in England and the United States, and the end of the African slave trade.The characters in this great historical moment go beyond a screenwriter's dream: Somerset's novice attorneys arguing their first case; the fervent British abolitionist Granville Sharp, a cross between Ralph Nader and WilliamLloyd Garrison, who had brought case after case to court in an attempt to abolish slavery; the master's two-faced and skillful lawyer, who had recently argued before Mansfield that slavery could not exist in England; and finally, the greatest judge of his time, Lord Mansfield, whose own mulatto grand-niece, Dido Belle, was his slave.As the case drew to a close Lord Mansfield spoke these stirring words that continue to resound more than two centuries later: "Let Justice be done, though the Heavens may fall."A Merloyd Lawrence Book

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