ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the expansion of antislavery/anti-slave trade voices to include the seemingly disenfranchised and traces the changes in rhetorical appeal as the British public grew more interested in the cause. Inclusion of multiple voices clamoring to express antislavery rationale results simultaneously in a reshaping of national identity. Anthony Benezet and Granville Sharp helped focus for their audiences the primary and most immediate issues involving the institution of slavery that needed to be addressed. As the antislavery spirit spread through British society, writers began to experiment with expressing activist sentiment through other genres. The rhetoric in defense of Somersets liberty transcended the facts of the case to define the true characteristics of the English. Proslavery interests claimed an inviolable right to property in the body of their slaves and quoted English law in support of that right. British national identity revolved around a belief in benevolent Christianity that the corrupt practices encouraged by slavery seriously threatened.
