Part 2 follows the first major freedom case in the English speaking world, Somerset v. Stewart, as abolitionist Granville Sharp searches for a test case and uses habeas corpus to stop James Somerset from being shipped to Jamaica for sale. We track Lord Mansfield’s long delay, his final ruling that slavery is “so odious” it can exist only by “positive law,” and why the decision was widely understood as ending slavery in England, then became a foundational boost for abolitionists and a looming question for American courts after independence.

Part 3 moves to Maryland, where blurred color lines, shifting agricultural economics, and the growth of Baltimore create unusually fertile ground for freedom suits, especially claims rooted in the “mother to child” status rule and the use of hearsay to prove ancestry. We follow the Butler cases and their ...