fetters definition (via Google): : “a chain or manacle used to restrain a prisoner, typically placed around the ankles.”

It is very interesting to see the line of questioning shift the perspective of whether slaves could be considered human enough to be tried for a “crime” but not human enough to still be considered cattle and sold off as property. The final verdict of freedom also comes to a point that if they were set free, what of the rest of the people being enslaved in their home country?

Additionally, for such a heavy and important topic why did it take legal battles to come to a conclusion? Shouldn’t the act in of itself be an sewer to the question of morality regarding slavery?