Southerners’ fear of the impact of the Somerset decision was justified, because Britain abolished slavery in its colonies in 1833, more than 30 years before the end of the American Civil War.

The promise rang through the young British colonies: Any enslaved black person who could reach Florida, then under Spanish control, would be declared free if they immediately converted to ...

The Southern colonies had no reason to put their lives, their families’ lives, their property and their legacy on the line until a single decision at the Court of King’s Bench in London on ...

Little noted is when Thomas Jefferson produced the first draft of the Declaration, there was a 30th count that was dropped at the demand of convention delegates from the Southern colonies.

Whoever promises them freedom will gain their loyalty and their assistance, Hamilton said, and sure enough, later in 1779 when the British attacked the Southern colonies in an attempt to split them ...

Slavery never took hold in the northern colonies as it did in the southern colonies mostly because there were no labor-intensive cash crops — no tobacco, indigo, rice or cotton.

The southern colonies feared that Somerset would eventually apply to them and abolish their way of life. In their view, the only way to preserve slavery was to become independent of Britain.