Somerset V. Steuart by Matthew Mason

Somerset V. Steuart by Matthew Mason

In the more than 250 years since Lord Mansfield pronounced judgment in Somerset v. Steuart (1772) that slavery was not supported by law in England, historians and legal scholars have probed its significance for the history of slavery and abolition in the Atlantic world. Engaging both the robust traditions of scholarship and the recent upswell of interest surrounding the case, the essays in this volume show how the ruling exposed the fissures in the seemingly solid structures of empire, slavery, and “freedom” in British North America. In the short run, the ruling amplified the alienation of white North American colonists from metropolitan Britain; in the longer run, it bolstered both proslavery and antislavery movements in the new empire of the United States.

The contributors are Harvey Amani Whitfield, John N. Blanton, Henry N. Buehner, Matthew Crow, Jesse R. Eaton, Daniel J. Hulsebosch, Matthew Mason, H. Reuben Neptune, Dana Rabin, Padraig Riley, Grant Stanton, Kirsten Sword, Evan Turiano, David Waldstreicher, Nicholas P. Wood, and Helena Yoo-Roth.

“The Somerset case has attained a renewed significance to the history of the American Revolution, and the essays in this excellent volume offer a timely and enduring contribution that illuminates the context for independenceIt will be a landmark volume.”—Christopher Leslie Brown, Columbia University

Matthew Mason is professor of history at Brigham Young University.

David Waldstreicher is Distinguished Professor of history at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781469695181
ISBN 10	1469695189
Title	Somerset V. Steuart
Author	Matthew Mason
Series	Published By The Omohundro Institute Of Early American History And Culture And The University Of North Carolina Press
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	The University of North Carolina Press
Year published	2026-11-17
Number of pages	344
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.