Granville Sharp

Granville Sharp ( born November 10, 1735 in Durham, † July 6, 1813 in London) was a self-taught lawyer, an opponent of slavery and one of the founders of the British abolitionist movement.

Biography

Sharp was born the ninth of 14 children of the theologian and writer Thomas Sharp. His grandfather was the York Archbishop John Sharp. Sharp is also an excellent flute player and connoisseur of ancient Greek and Hebrew language. His grave is in the churchyard of All Saints Church in Fulham, London. In Westminster Abbey a memorial stone is erected.

Founding of the abolitionists society

His fight against slavery began when he in 1765 for the abused slave Jonathan Strong championed and eventually won in court in 1772 whose freedom. Also over the former slave Olaudah Equiano, he was informed about the fate of the slaves in the Atlantic slave trade. 1783 Sharp tried unsuccessfully in the trial of Captain Luke Collingwood, who had thrown 132 fell ill and debilitated slaves on the Atlantic passage on board to collect the insurance, convert the fraud proceedings in a murder charge. Together with Thomas Clarkson in 1787 he founded the Society for the Abolition of Slavery. The attempt to create a safe place for freed slaves in Sierra Leone with Granville Town, failed. The diverse activities of abolitionists contributed but significantly to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.

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