Mansfield Park is recommended to modern audiences because it grapples with the topic of slavery and how upper-class English families like the Bertrams benefitted from the revenue from sugar plantations. Sir Thomas, the patriarch of the story is sorting out his business affairs in Antigua during crucial events, but what he is doing there is only vaguely alluded to. The novel in fact does not make any pronouncements about slavery, nor are there any consequences for the Bertram family for living off the avails of slavery--though modern critics believe it contains veiled anti-slavery allusions.
    Well, if anti-slavery messages are why we pick up Mansfield Park, we don't we toss it aside and read Alethea Lewis instead? Because she doesn't go with subtle veiled allusions. She doesn't hold back on her opinions of slave traders and plantation owners. We meet enslaved people in The Microcosm and we travel to Jamaica. Further, Lewis's novel was published before the slave trade (but not slavery) was outlawed, while Mansfield Park was published seven years after. Thus, Fanny Price asking her uncle a question about the slave trade, years after the trade was made illegal, is not exactly a daring thing to do. Regular readers of my blog will know this is something I've banged on about quite a lot, but I had to mention it again after discovering The Microcosm.  The title presumably means, "this novel is a microcosm of society today."... 
    And, Lewis uses the name "Mansfield" in her novel! I personally don't think she is intending a reference to Lord Mansfield, but others may disagree.
​​     If you've been told it was risky for Austen to speak out against slavery, and that she could only hint at it by speaking of "Moor Park Apricots," if you've been told she was brave for speaking out against slavery, check out what Lewis wrote, below (see "Editorial") 

    Continuing my discussion from my last post we turn from novels to obituaries, books of anecdotes, and one particular historical event he's associated with. Of all the topics that come to mind when people referenced Lord Mansfield, was slavery at the top of the list, or even near the top? It appears this wasn't the case until about the 1840's, but if I find any exceptions, I will add them.

Remembrances When He Died in 1793
   The European Magazine, London Review, the Scots Magazine, and Walker's Hibernian Magazine all printed a brief biography with a collection of anecdotes. It appears to be the same article. No mention of the Somerset case.
     The Annual Register, Or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1793 also describes the contents of his will, which mentions the now-famous Dido, as does the Edinburgh Magazine and the Gentleman's Magazine. Dido was referred to as a "free black," not as a family member.
   Other newspaper articles did not delve into Mansfield's legal accomplishments, but gave brief biographies, praised his public and private character, discussed his will and the size of his estate, and explained who would inherit his titles. Follow up articles gave details of his final illness and his funeral.

     I've been exploring the assumption that readers of Austen's time automatically thought of Lord Mansfield when they saw the name Mansfield Park, and specifically, would think of his ruling in Somerset v Stewart. (If you want a backgrounder on what I'm talking about, start here).
    I agree that in Austen’s time, William Murray, Lord Mansfield, was well known and his memory was held in high regard; not universally, because he was at one time involved in politics and therefore he was a member of a political party, which means he had political opponents. More on that coming up.
    Although the readers of the Regency remembered Lord Mansfield, this doesn't mean that he was primarily remembered for the Somerset v. Stewart case. He was a famous legal reformer and a highly respected jurist, so he was remembered for a lot of things. The Somerset case in particular was not, as far as I can see, the top of mind association for a reader in Austen's time, and I'll give examples to show that in this and future posts.
       So far, we've looked at novels in which the authors used the name "Mansfield" for their characters--some good, some bad, some central, some peripheral--with no evident association with either Lord Mansfield or slavery.
     This post will focus on novels in which the narrators or the characters made passing references to the real Lord Mansfield. Some quote him, some refer to him in general, some refer to his judicial wig, some to his rulings on libel. You'll see that I could not turn up a novel which referenced Mansfield's Somerset ruling. 

     As I've been discussing in my previous posts, one of the things that makes the "Mansfield Park-is-named-after-Lord Mansfield" theory questionable is the fact that many other novels used the name Mansfield for their characters without any evident reference to the Chief Justice much less to the issue of abolition. Here are a few more examples.