If Parliament is going to force its will on distant peoples, it must also give them the vote.
In 1775, anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp leapt to the defence of inhabitants of Britain’s thirteen American colonies, who were demanding to be represented in the House of Commons if they were expected to obey the laws passed there. No government, Sharp declared, is legitimate if the common people who are expected to obey its decisions — whether at home or far abroad — are not closely and frequently involved in the decision-making process.
After word came that Harry Demane had been lured aboard a slave-ship, Granville Sharp had only a few hours in which to make sure he did not sail.
Thanks to campaigner Granville Sharp, ‘Somersett’s Case’ in 1772 proved that slave owners could expect no help from our courts. But they could still sell their African servants into slavery in far-off British colonies, and when Mr Jeffries of Bedford Street did just that, the race was on to find Harry Demane before his ship left port — even as London was settling down for the weekend.