Statute 23 George II c.31
“1749-50”
object · 1 work · 1 mention · 8 anchored passages
An act for extending and improving the trade to Africa · the statute of 23d George II, ch. 31
in the texts
The Unconstitutionality of Slavery
The 1749-50 British statute regulating trade to Africa, central to the legal analysis.
But even if it were admitted that this statute legalized the right of property, on the part of the slave trader, in his slaves taken in Africa after the passage of the act, and legalized the sale of such slaves in America, still the statute would be ineffectual to sustain the legality of slavery, in general, in the colonies.
Now, although there is perhaps no good reason to doubt that the secret intention of Parliament in the passage of this act, was to stimulate the slave trade, and that there was a tacit understanding between the government and the slave dealers, that the slave trade should go on unharmed (in practice) by the government, and although it was undoubtedly understood that this penalty of one hundred poun …
That this statute did not legalize the right of property in man, (unless as a local principle on the coast of Africa,) we have the decision of Lord Mansfield, who held that it did not legalize it in England;