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Sharp's first involvement: Jonathan Strong

Strong was a young black slave from Barbados who had been so badly beaten by his master, David Lisle, a lawyer, with a pistol to the head. This left him close to blindness and as a result was cast out into the street as useless.

The Sharps paid for his treatment and, when he was fit enough, found him employment as an errand runner with a Quaker apothecary friend of theirs.

In 1767, Lisle saw Strong in the street and planned to sell him to a Jamaica planter named James Kerr for £30. Kerr wanted Strong on board his ship before paying, so Lisle and Kerr kidnapped Strong and kept him in Poultry Counter Prison with the help of the jail keeper.

Strong was able to get word to Sharp, who went directly to the Lord Mayor who in turn convened those laying claim to Jonathan Strong. In court Mr. Macbean, Kerr's attorney, produced the bill of sales from when Lisle sold Strong to Kerr. That was not enough to convince Lord Mayor because Strong was imprisoned without clear cause, and so he liberated Strong. Afterwards, a West India Captain named David Laird grabbed Jonathan Strong's arm and claimed he would take him as James Kerr's property. Sharp, at the suggestion of Thomas Beech, the Coroner of London, threatened to charge Laird with assault should he attempt to take Strong by force. Laird let go of Strong and everyone who had been summoned departed without further dispute.

Increasing involvement

In 1769 Sharp published A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery ..., the first tract in England attacking slavery. Within it, he argues that "the laws of nature" grant equality to all humans regardless of any artificial laws imposed by society. He also condemns slave contracts because the liberty of a man cannot be matched in value by anything.

Somerset v Stewart

On 13 January 1772, Sharp was visited and asked for help by James Somerset, an indigenous person of Africa who had been brought to America to be sold in the Colony of Virginia. He was then taken to England with his master Charles Stewart in 1769, where he was able to run away in October 1771. After evading slave hunters employed by Stewart for 56 days, Somerset had been caught and put in the slave ship Ann and Mary, to be taken to Jamaica and sold. This was the perfect case for Sharp because, unlike the previous cases, this was a question of lawful slavery rather of ownership.

Having studied English law for several years now, Sharp called on his now-formidable knowledge of the law regarding individual liberty and briefed Somerset's lawyers.

Other Activism

Sharp was also one of the founders and the first President of the British and Foreign Bible Society and of the Society for the Conversion of the Jews.

Benjamin Rush The correspondence between Granville Sharp and Anthony Benezet inspired Benjamin Rush, a physician in Philadelphia who would later become one of the founding fathers, to contact Sharp as well. This led to a connection by letter between the two that lasted 36 years. In the first letter, written May 1 1773, Rush attests to the increasing compassion within the colonies towards the suffering of the slaves. He makes mention of the clergy publicly arguing that slavery is a violation of both "the laws of nature" and Christian belief. This detail is noteworthy because Sharp was of the belief that laws should follow both "the laws of nature" and that which is given in Judeo-Christian scripture. Another letter, written February 21 1774, has Sharp providing Rush with several pamphlets, written by himself and his brothers William and James, to be shared with friends and eventually to Lord Dartmouth. Many similar exchanges of pamphlets occur throughout their correspondence, which allowed them to inspire one another and refine their arguments against slavery. The final letter of their correspondence was written June 20 1809, four years prior to the death of both figures in 1813.