Lord Mansfield\u27s influence on slavery in America began on June 22, 1772, when he decided the case that freed James Somerset and declared slavery so odious that it could not be enforced in Britain by sending a slave out of the country against his will. It continues into the present through work such as the University of Michigan\u27s successful defense of affirmative action before our Supreme Court. My focus today is on six episodes showing the influence of Mansfield\u27s decision in Somerset v. Stuart in America
