 The plaintiff was felt to have simply overdone the fictions, and was allowed to amend his declaration to allege the sale of a slave in the royal colony of Virginia, where slavery was recognised by colonial law, and the English courts would recognise and enforce the rights arising under Virginian law.Slaves were regularly bought and sold on the Liverpool and London markets, and actions on contract concerning slaves were common in the 18th century without any serious suggestion that they were void for illegality.Even the statement made in the various trover decisions appear to have been directed to good pleading rather than the legality of slavery