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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0444 and id is 1 raw text is: THE SLAVE, GRACE
[94] THE SLAVE, GRACE. November 6, 1827.-A female attendant, by birth and
servitude a domestic slave, accompanied her mistress to England, resided there
for a year, and then voluntarily returned with her mistress to the place of her
birth and servitude: though during the residence in England no dominion,
authority, or coercion can be exercised over such person, yet, on her return to
her place of birth and servitude, the right to exercise such dominion revives.
The King, and His Majesty's Procurator-General, and George Wyke, Appellants
versus
John Allan, Esq., Claimant, . . . . . . Respondent.
On Appeal from the Vice-Admiralty Court of Antigua.
In 1822, Mrs. Allan of Antigua came to England, bringing with her a female
attendant, by birth and servitude a domestic slave, named Grace. She resided
with her mistress in this country until 1823, and accompanied her voluntarily on
her return to Antigua. Mr. Wyke, collector of the customs at Antigua and the
original prosecutor of the present suit, was a passenger on board the same ship. On
their arrival at Port St. John, in the island of Antigua, Grace, with whose character
and situation Mr. Wyke was well acquainted, landed with her mistress, without
any exception made to her condition, and without any formalities at the Custom
House observed or required. She continued with Mrs. Allan, in the capacity of a
domestic slave, till August 8th, 1825, when she was seized by the waiter of the
customs at Antigua as forfeited to the King, on suggestion of having been illegally
imported in 1823. The information was filed in June 1826. Mr. Allan then made
an affidavit of claim, as sole owner and proprietor of Grace, as his slave; and
Mr. Wyke, a single witness, was [95] examined on interrogatories. On August 5,
1826, the judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court of Antigua decreed, after argument,
that the woman Grace be restored to the claimant, with costs and damages for her
detention. *
From this sentence an appeal was prosecuted on the part of the Crown, and the
principal question made, was-whether, under the circumstances, slavery was so
divested by landing in England that it would not revive on a return to the place of
birth and servitude ?
The King's Advocate and Lushington for the Appellants.
Jenner and Dodson, contra.
Judgment-Lord Stowell: This case commences with an information against a
woman named Grace, who attended her mistress as a domestic servant to England,
and returned with her to Antigua ; and consists, in the first place, of various counts
charging omissions of regulations imposed upon the importation and exportation of
slaves to and from the West India colonies; and in consequence thereof, condemna-
tion, or forfeiture to His Majesty, is contended for.
I have to discharge a debt of obligation to the counsel who have argued this
cause on both sides, and have taken great pains in elucidating questions that arise
upon it. I have likewise to discharge a [96] duty which I owe to the Judge below
(Dr. Nugent), who has examined the case with very meritorious diligence and acute-
ness, and thrown very considerable lights upon the general subject. I could have
wished that, in a case so novel in this Court, it had been furnished with more both
of argument and evidence than I have met with in the process which has been trans-
mitted from the inferior Court. What the arguments were on either side of the
question in the Court below, what opposition was given to the doctrines maintained
by the Court, and by what evidence that opposition was supported, or by what
arguments resisted, these papers do not inform me. In a case so important, and
unprecedented in this Court, I am left to conjecture what the arguments were from
other public papers supplied by the Advocate-General who argued the cause in the
Court below, which papers were transmitted to the Secretary of State for the Colonies,
and by him or his officers, I presume, submitted to the House of Commons.t That
is not the way in which the superior Court usually collects information of what passes
* The damages were, upon the report of the registrar, ultimately fixed at £36, 6s.
currency, the award being made at the rate of 2s. per diem. The appraised value
of Grace was £125 currency.
t These papers were, on May 2, 1826, ordered by the House of Commons to be
printed.
2 HAGG. 94.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0444&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)