Dunning, in a
cause of this kind, which came on afterwards, took the opposite side of
the question.]
After this one or two other trials came on, in which the oppressor was
defeated, and several cases occurred in which poor slaves were liberated
from the holds of vessels and other places of confinement, by the
exertions of Mr. Sharp. One of these cases was singular. The vessels on
board which a poor African had been dragged and confined, had reached
the Downs, and had actually got under weigh for the West Indies: in two
or three hours she would have been out of sight; but just at this
critical moment the writ of _habeas corpus_ was carried on board. The
officer who served it on the captain saw the miserable African chained
to the mainmast, bathed in tears, and casting a last mournful look on
the land of freedom, which was fast receding from his sight. The
captain, on receiving the writ, became outrageous; but knowing the
serious consequences of resisting the law of the land, he gave up his
prisoner, whom the officer carried safe, but now crying for joy, to the
shore.
But though the injured Africans, whose causes had been tried, escaped
slavery, and though many who had been forcibly carried into dungeons,
ready to be transported into the Colonies, had been delivered out of
them, Mr.
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