Slavery at Common Law - Cartwright's Case

Cartwright's Case

In 1569 a man, Cartwright, was observed savagely beating another, which in law would have amounted to a battery, unless a defence could be mounted. Cartwright averred that the man was a slave whom he had brought to England from Russia, and thus such chastisement was not unlawful. Although such reports of the case as exist are limited, it is reported that the court held that the man must be freed, and it is often said that the court held "that England was too pure an air for a slave to breathe in."

Subsequent citations of the effect of the case was actually to impose limits on the physical punishment on slaves, rather than to express comment on legality of slavery generally. In the case of John Lilburne in 1649, the defendant's counsel relied upon Cartwright's case to show that the severity of a whipping received by Lilburne exceeded that permitted by law. In none of subsequent common law cases prior to Somersett's case was Cartwright's case cited as authority for the proposition that slavery was unlawful. However, those disputes predominantly concerned disputes between slave merchants (the notable exception being Shanley v Harvey, as to which see below), for whom it would have been commercially unwise to plead that slavery was unlawful.

It is inferred that because he was from Russia Cartwright's slave was white, and probably a Christian, although this is not recorded. However, it is not impossible that he was African, as although they were uncommon, African slaves in Russia were not unknown prior to the emergence of the Atlantic slave trade.