Somerset v. Stewart decision leads to end of slavery in England.

Kiing’s Bench frees James Somerset, an enslaved man, who was brought to England from Boston by customs official Charles Stewart in 1769. In its opinion, written by Lord Mansfield, the three-judge panel declares slavery “So odious . . . [that] it is not alllowed or approved by the Law of Engand.” The ruling leads to the freeing of the approximately 15,000 enslaved people in England at the time, and creates great concern in American South. Britain goes on to abolishes slaver in its colonies all in 1833.