in a case decided by Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, an English court held that a slave purchased in Virginia and carried to England was released from bondage. Somerset v. Steuart enunciated a fundamental principle of the common law: the state of slavery was “so odious” that it exists only where supported by “positive law,” and such laws do not reach across borders. Once outside the jurisdiction in which he was legally held to bondage, any slave could in theory apply to a local court for a writ of habeas corpus,
