Filip Batselé Omnes Homines Aut Liberi Sunt Aut Servi

Studies in the History of Law and Justice 17 Series Editors: Mortimer Sellers · Georges Martyn Filip Batselé Liberty, Slavery and the Law in Early Modern Western Europe Omnes Homines aut Liberi Sunt aut Servi Studies in the History of Law and Justice Volume 17 Series Editors Mortimer Sellers University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA Georges Martyn Law Faculty, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium Editorial Board António Pedro Barbas Homem, Faculty of Law, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal Emmanuele Conte, Facolta di Giurisprudenza, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Roma, Italy Maria Gigliola di Renzo Villata, Law & Legal History, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Markus Dirk Dubber, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada William Ewald, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, PA, USA Igor Filippov, Faculty of History, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia Amalia Kessler, Stanford Law School Crown Quad, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA Mia Korpiola, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Helsinki, Finland Aniceto Masferrer, Faculty of Law, Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain Yasutomo Morigiwa, Nagoya University Graduate School of Law, Tokyo, Japan Ulrike Müßig, Universität Passau, Passau, Germany Sylvain Soleil, Faculté de Droit et de Science Politique, Université de Rennes, Rennes, France James Q. Whitman, Yale Law School, New Haven, CT, USA The purpose of this book series is to publish high quality volumes on the history of law and justice. Legal history can be a deeply provocative and influential field, as illustrated by the growth of the European universities and the Ius Commune, the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and indeed all the great movements for national liberation through law. The study of history gives scholars and reformers the models and courage to question entrenched injustices, by demon- strating the contingency of law and other social arrangements. Yet legal history today finds itself diminished in the universities and legal academy. Too often scholarship betrays no knowledge of what went before, or why legal institutions took the shape that they did. This series seeks to remedy that deficiency. Studies in the History of Law and Justice will be theoretical and reflective. Volumes will address the history of law and justice from a critical and comparative viewpoint. The studies in this series will be strong bold narratives of the development of law and justice. Some will be suitable for a very broad readership. Contributions to this series will come from scholars on every continent and in every legal system. Volumes will promote international comparisons and dialogue. The purpose will be to provide the next generation of lawyers with the models and narratives needed to understand and improve the law and justice of their own era. The series includes monographs focusing on a specific topic, as well as collections of articles covering a theme or collections of article by one author. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11794 Filip Batselé Liberty, Slavery and the Law in Early Modern Western Europe Omnes Homines aut Liberi Sunt aut Servi 123 Filip Batselé PhD Fellow—FWO (Research Foundation—Flanders)—Institute for Legal History Ghent University Ghent, Belgium ISSN 2198-9842 ISSN 2198-9850 (electronic) Studies in the History of Law and Justice ISBN 978-3-030-36854-8 ISBN 978-3-030-36855-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36855-5 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland In memory of my grandparents Maria Degraeve (1937–2014) and Johan Bockstaele (1934–2019) Preface In 1777, a family of three enslaved persons petitioned the States General, the most important institution of the Dutch Republic. In their petition, Blondin and his family, who had lived most of their lives on a Suriname plantation, asked the States General to reconsider a previous decision and grant him and his family their freedom. What were the grounds for their claim? The enslaved family believed that, because they had previously been in the Dutch Republic for a short while, they had become personally free. The case of Blondin and his family was not unique. In fact, especially during the eighteenth century, several enslaved persons in the Low Countries, England, France and several other European countries were making the same claim. They and some of their lawyers believed that a “freedom principle,” which legally entailed that one became free upon touching the soil of a certain country, had saved them from continued slavery. This book traces both the origins and the development of that freedom principle in several jurisdictions, namely England, the Low Countries and France. This book aims to contribute to a fuller understanding of the legal manifestations of slavery. While the field has been dominated, understandably so given the numbers, by the legal manifestations of the Atlantic slave trade in the New World, it has always been clear that metropolis and colony were closely connected with one another. A growing number of scholars have become interested in the presence of enslaved persons on European soil. This book aims to both synthesize and sup- plement that growing body of literature. Over the years, European countries have wrestled with their colonial past and involvement in the slave trade. To name but a few examples, in the wake of US universities, several British universities have started enquiring into their involvement in the slave trade and considered if something can and should be done to compensate for past gains they had derived therefrom. Likewise, closer to my own home, the Netherlands has continued to debate the role the slave trade had for the Dutch Republic. For example, a very recent report concluded that 5.2% of the Republic’s GDP in 1770 was fueled by the Atlantic slave trade. This and other reports have prompted the difficult questions of apologies and possible compen- sation by municipal, regional and national authorities. In all these discussions, vii viii Preface an argument that is sometimes brought to the fore is the idea that “slavery was in the Americas,” and that European states themselves had banned the practice of slavery much earlier. This book undoubtedly problematizes that latest contention. The uses of history can be many. While achieving a better understanding of the past is a goal of history in itself, historical writing also has bearing upon the present-day reality. Although it is my hope that this book can also help to inform the debate on how European states should deal with their slavery past, the nor- mative implications one wishes to draw from this book for present purposes are for the reader to decide. Ghent, Belgium Filip Batselé Acknowledgements This monograph is borne from the master’s thesis for the degree of Master of Laws that I submitted at Ghent University in 2017. Over the last two years, the original manuscript was extensively edited and expanded upon. As a young scholar, I particularly owe a ton of gratitude to various persons who have been seminal in the conception of this monograph. In the first place, I wish to thank the staff of the Ghent Legal History Institute. During the course of my own law studies, the Legal History Institute invariably served as the perfect redoubt for a student interested in the contextual history of law, and the courses taught by its staff gave me a lasting interest for European legal history. Professor Dhondt, as the promoter of the original master’s thesis, and Professor Heirbaut, as the secretary, deserve particular gratitude. Professor Dhondt possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of European legal history, and both his substantive comments, as well as his willingness to always help a young student, have greatly improved the quality of this monograph. Likewise, Professor Heirbaut’s intellectual curiosity and experience have been of great importance in forming my academic background. I would also like to thank John Finlay, Professor of Scots Law at the University of Glasgow. An Erasmus+ exchange does not only give one a sense of appreciation for the EU’s motto of “united in diversity,” but also the opportunity to see things through “another lens,” which helps to frame research questions. It was through the work of the late Alan Watson, as well as the seminal Montgomery v. Sheddan case, both to which Professor Finlay introduced me, that the topic for my dissertation was further refined. I am also indebted to the various academics who were willing to answer e-mails from a curious law student, as well as to the peer reviewer who gave various useful comments for the completion of this book.

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