Plaque commemorating historic slavery ruling unveiled in Edinburgh

A plaque commemorating a historic Scottish slavery case has been unveiled at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

The Knight v Wedderburn case took place on 15 January 1778 and contributed to slavery being declared illegal in Scotland.

It involved Joseph Knight who sought the freedom to leave the employment of John Wedderburn of Bandean in Perthshire.

Knight claimed that, although many years earlier he had been purchased by Wedderburn in Jamaica from a slave trader, the act of landing in Scotland freed him from perpetual servitude, as slavery was not recognised in Scotland.

The Sheriff of Perth found in favour of Knight, ruling that “the state of slavery is not recognised by the laws of this kingdom, and is inconsistent with the principles thereof”.

When the Leader of Edinburgh's slavery and Colonialism legacy review group, Sir Geoff Palmer, contacted the court and tribunal service to see if they had any recognition of the case, it emerged there was not.

So researchers were tasked with coming up with a way of educating the public about the precedent setting ruling.

Wedderburn appealed to the Court of Session, where judges upheld the sheriff’s decision by a vote of ten to four.

The case gave the Court of Session the opportunity to declare that slavery was not recognised by Scots law and that fugitives from slavery (or 'perpetual servants') could be protected by the courts if they wished to leave domestic service or if attempts were made to forcibly remove them from Scotland and return them to slavery in the colonies.

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