Granville Sharp and his brother took Jonathan Strong, an African, off the streets of London and found a job for him. Two years later, Jonathan was spotted by a former slave-master and claimed as a runaway slave, so he wrote to Granville from jail asking for help.

Granville Sharp took Jonathan’s case on himself, researching his legal position. However, his claim that slave owners had no rights in England was not put to the test, as Jonathan’s ‘owner’ backed down in the face of Granville’s determination, and dropped the case.

90 words