It is a landmark case in Scottish legal history. In 1778, Joseph Knight persuaded the courts he should be free to leave the employment of John Wedderburn. The obstacle was that Wedderburn had bought Knight as a slave in Jamaica and believed he had the right to hold him in perpetual servitude.
Knight lost his initial case in Perth, but based his successful appeal on the argument that Scots law did not support slavery. Whatever the law in Jamaica, he could not legally be enslaved here. The appeal judges agreed.
You would expect a play on this subject to be celebratory. In the era of Black Lives Matter, isn’t it exactly the kind of feelgood story we need? It even has a happy ending. [READ MORE]