Southerners’ fear of the impact of the Somerset decision was justified, because Britain abolished slavery in its colonies in 1833, more than 30 years before the end of the American Civil War.

The Southern colonies had no reason to put their lives, their families’ lives, their property and their legacy on the line until a single decision at the Court of King’s Bench in London on ...

The Savage South” is an image that retired UNC-Chapel Hill Lineberger Professor of the Humanities at Fred Hobson thinks and ...

When the British took control of Florida from Spain in 1763, they brought with them the system of slavery that had thrived in other Southern colonies. Slavery had begun in the New World in Florida,… ...

SLAVE NATION: How Slavery United the Colonies and Sparked the American Revolution Alfred Blumrosen, . . Sourcebooks, $24.95 (384pp) ISBN 978-1-4022-0400-5 ...

The southern colonies feared that Somerset would eventually apply to them and abolish their way of life. In their view, the only way to preserve slavery was to become independent of Britain.

Slave trader, merchant and diplomat . Richard Oswald was the son of a Presbyterian minister. ... Most of the slaves Oswald traded were shipped to the southern colonies of British North America.