"ON A LEVEL WITH JULY 1776 AS A DETERMINANT OF THE FUTURE OF BRITISH NORTH AMERICA"
HARGRAVE, Mr. (Francis). Argument in the Case of James Sommersett. London, 1772.
First edition of Hargrave's seminal Argument, featuring his well-documented legal analysis, based on his "oral presentation" and vital to Lord Mansfield's 1772 opinion in Somerset v Stewart, establishing "principles that dominated all later controversies about slavery," denounced by Franklin, then in London, as hypocritical in boasting of Britain's "love of liberty and equity in setting free a single negro," precedes the 1773 first American edition demonstrating "Americans not only knew of Somerset at the time of the Revolution and the framing of the Constitution but also had access to the legal arguments surrounding the case." $10,800.
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