The source examined this week was a pamphlet called Candid Reflections Upon the Judgement lately awarded by the Court of Kings Bench. This was written by Edward Long (1734 – 1813) who was a British Colonial Administrator and slave owner who portrays in the document his extreme racist views and defence of slavery. The document can also be known as The Negro Cause (1772) as it entails a court case involving James Somerset, an escaped slave, his slave owner Charles Stuart, and Judge Lord Mansfield. Stuart intended on imprisoning Somerset by putting him on a ship that would return to Jamaica to resell him into slavery for escaping. However, Lord Mansfield, who was a leading abolitionist and friend of ex-slave Olaudah Equiano, of course disagreed with this. Instead, Lord Mansfield’s final decision led to freeing Somerset allowing him to celebrate the verdict with both black and white Londoners. On the other hand, this dispute resulted in Edward Long and many other slave owners expressing their anger and hatred towards black slaves. The case raised an important question on considering whether slaves could be lawfully kept in England.
Long seen Mansfield’s ruling as a precedence that allows African slaves living in Britain the same legal protection as natural-born British citizens. His pamphlet seeks to discredit with this ruling by proving that African slaves should not be given equal legal protection for liberty and property under British law. Long further highlighted this view by expressing his political, sexual, and social anxieties that he felt towards blacks by mentioning his disgust of intermarriages. He stated that “the English blood will become so contaminated with this mixture…this is a venomous and dangerous ulcer” (Section 5, 49). This clearly illustrates acts of plutocracy racism and shows how Long strongly believed that blacks should not have the same rights as Englishmen. Alternatively, Edward point outs that if black people did have the same rights as Englishmen, then they would be unbeneficial in terms of not supporting or improving Britain’s politics, economy, or social events due to their lack of intelligence and inferiority.
Edward Long’s family history entails of him being the son of a Jamaican planter who had strong connections with the island due to his family members owning many properties. For instance, his brother Robert gave him a share of his property in Clarendon and then later in the Lucky Valley Estate. Long used this family plantation ownership and Caribbean colonisation to provide the authority through which he created this pamphlet. It demonstrated Long’s hostility towards blacks by firstly disagreeing with Mansfield’s decision. Long viewed slaves as property and are to be held as money in the hands of a planter who can make immense profits on their labour. This was a very common attitude that slave owners felt towards their slaves.
Overall, Long made a profound impact through his racist content and similar themes of “African Blackness” being synonymous with animal characteristics and laziness. The document relates perfectly with this week’s theme of anti-slavery writings and the origins of racist ideology as Edward Long was very much openly racist as evidenced through his writings.
Dear Megan you show a good level of understanding and clear focus in Long’s Candid Reflections. You summarise aspects of Long’s argument well. You also place it in the context of the Mansfield judgement and show it is part of the planation owners’ response to the challenge laid down by the judgement to their complete control of enslaved Africans while they lived in Britain. There are a few typos in your post, you say plutocracy when you mean plantocracy and you say anti-slavery writings when you mean pro-slavery writings. I think you also confuse Lord Mansfield and Granville Sharp since you say Mansfield was a leading abolitionist and a friend to ex-slave Equiano. Mansfield owned slaves and also as Lord chief justice was apolitical.