Joseph Knight (slave)

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Joseph Knight (fl. 1769–1778) was a man born in Guinea (the general name of West Africa) and there seized into slavery. It appears that the captain of the ship which brought him to Jamaica there sold him to John Wedderburn of Ballindean, Scotland. Wedderburn had Knight serve in his household, and took him along when he returned to Scotland in 1769. On Knight leaving his service, Wedderburn had him arrested and brought before the local justices of the peace. Inspired by Somersett's Case (1772), in which the courts had held that slavery did not exist under English common law, Knight resisted his claim. Knight won his claim after two appeals, in a case that established the principle that Scots law would not uphold the institution of slavery (except in the case of enslaved colliers and salters who had to wait until the end of the century for emancipation).