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Slave Trade Act 1807
The Slave Trade Act was passed by the British Parliament on 25 March 1807, making the slave trade illegal throughout the British Empire. The Act did not ban the practice of slavery on British soil, but it did ban the slave trade across Britain and its overseas colonies. The movement to pass the act was spearheaded in the House of Lords by the Prime Minister of the time, William Grenville, and in the House of Commons by Charles Grey. The passing of the act was assisted by the Acts of Union 1800, which brought Irish MPs, who typically supported abolition, into Parliament. The ownership of slaves remained an issue of contention. It had been challenged in the Somerset Case of 1772, the outcome of which bolstered the argument that slavery had no basis in English law.

The Slave Trade Act was partly enforced by the West Africa Squadron of the Royal Navy, established in 1808 to patrol the Western coast of Africa. The Act imposed a fine of £100 for every slave found aboard a British ship. However, the slave trade continued via smuggling for several years. Owning slaves remained legal on British soil until the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

Biography
Somerset was born in West Africa around 1741. In 1749, he was captured when he was about 8 years old and sold to European slave traders. On 10 March 1749 he was transported by British slave ship to the American Colony of Virginia, where Scottish merchant Charles Stewart bought Somerset on 1 August 1749. In 1764, Somerset was taken to Boston, where Stewart had been appointed Receiver General of Customs.

In November 1769, Stewart moved to England, taking Somerset along to serve him in his residence in London. In London, Somerset was baptised on 10 February 1771 at the Church of St Andrew, Holborn, with Thomas Walkin, Elizabeth Cade and John Marlow acting as his godparents. Perhaps because baptism was often associated with manumission, Somerset refused to continue serving Stewart, and left on 1 October of that year. Somerset lived in freedom for two months before he was kidnapped in November 1771 and forced aboard the Ann and Mary, captained by John Knowles, to be transported to Jamaica and sold.

His godparents, being abolitionists, filed a Habeas corpus case with the courts and enlisted known abolitionist Granville Sharp to aid Somerset. The case, Somerset v Stewart, saw powerful interests arguing on both sides, as it challenged the legal basis of slavery in England and Wales. On 22 June 1772, Lord Mansfield ruled in favour of Somerset. In this case, Mansfield had found that slavery in England and Wales had no basis in common law, and had little to no positive law foundation to support it. Mansfield had meant for the ruling to be narrowly construed around the legality of forcible deportation, only conceding by a 1679 statute that slaves are servants, and not chattels. Despite this, it was popularly taken to confirm that slavery was outlawed in England and Wales. Somerset himself appears to have adopted this broader interpretation, and wrote to at least one enslaved person encouraging them to desert their master. In truth, the ruling only made the forcible deportation from mainland Britain to elsewhere abroad illegal.

Following the case, nothing is known of Somerset after 1772, though it is presumed he passed away in Britain.

Legacy
The precedent set by Somerset's case was followed closely by eyes across Britain and abroad. In particular, it was being followed by the press in the Americas. Based on a misreading of the case's precedent, several slaves in Massachusetts filed suits to win their freedom in the years following Mansfield's ruling. These were struck down by royal governors of the colony.

The Somerset ruling also had an effect domestically with British abolitionists. Mansfield's ruling helped support the abolitionist declaration that slavery was contrary to natural law.