Plaque unveiling commemorating Jonathan Strong and Granville Sharp

Pictured is the unveiling ceremony for a plaque commemorating enslaved youth Jonathan Strong and abolitionist campaigner Granville Sharp
The ceremony took place at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and was attended by Granville Sharp’s descendants, lawyers and hospital staff.
In 1765 enslaved youth Jonathan Strong was beaten by a slave owner and left for dead in the street. He was found by Granville Sharp who took him to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and paid for Strong’s medical bills and probably saved his life.
But two years later, Jonathan Strong was captured again and sold to a Jamaican slave owner. Determined to keep his freedom he asked for Sharp’s help. Sharp had no legal training but he went before a magistrate and successfully argued for Strong’s release.
Sharp then taught himself the law and in 1772 he won a ground-breaking test case to force the courts to confirm that slavery was not legal in England.
This plaque commemorates the two men and their victory.
It was created by BBC History and is one of twenty placed around the world for the series Black and British: A Forgotten History.