This lecture contrasts the attitudes towards the humanity of enslaved peoples take by Chief Justice Taney in the case of Dred Scott ( the notorious case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that African Americans are not citizens of the United States and therefore have no rights under the US constitution), and Lord Mansfield in Somersett’s case (ruling that slavery could not exist in England and therefore an enslaved man who had been brought to England must be recognised as free).
The lecture is organised by the Centre for American Legal Studies and hosted by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library.