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Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial that Led to the End of Human Slavery.

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Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial that Led to the End of Human Slavery

Steven M. Wise Da Capo Press www.dacapopress.com 282 pp., $25

It took a bloody civil war to end slavery in the United States. The American judicial system had not been up to the task. The Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision is the most infamous--and arguably the most disastrous--in the Court's long history. How then, many ask, was England able to abolish slavery by judicial decision in 1772?

That is not a simple question. Indeed, as I have stated it, the question may be misleading, for there is much debate about whether Lord Mansfield's ruling in Somerset v. Steuart actually abolished slavery in England. Professor William Wiecek of Syracuse University has written, "No other English decision on slavery has been so often quoted and almost as often misunderstood." Wiecek went on to warn that "Somerset best illustrates a legal world where things are not what they seem, a world of deceptive appearances and unforseen consequences."

Somerset is nevertheless a fascinating story. Steven Wise has written a workmanlike account that--notwithstanding the hyped subtitle--grapples with the complexity of its subject.

The basic facts...