Zong slave ship trial

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In the case of the Zong, a slave ship, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench in London made a statement on June 22, 1783, equating the massacre of enslaved Africans to throwing horses overboard. The crew of the Zong had cruelly discarded at least 142 captive Africans into the sea. However, the focus of the court proceedings was not on identifying the perpetrators of this atrocity, but rather on determining whether the lost "cargo" could be covered by insurance. The trial laid bare the horrifying and inhumane nature of the Atlantic slave trade, igniting a growing movement to abolish it.

The Zong set sail from Accra in August of 1781, carrying 442 enslaved Africans en route to the colonial plantations of Jamaica. Like many slave ships, the Zong was severely overcrowded, surpassing the safe capacity for a vessel of its size. Running low on water and having prolonged their voyage due to a navigation error, the crew decided to jettison some of the human "cargo" to ensure the safe arrival of the remaining individuals. This loss could be compensated under British law. Over a span of several days, the crew callously threw overboard at least 122 Africans. Ultimately, the Zong arrived in Black River, Jamaica with 208 enslaved people still on board.

The trial began in March of 1783, and the court initially ruled that the insurance company was liable for the damages, as enslaved people were treated as ordinary cargo. However, two months later, the Chief Justice overturned the decision based on new evidence. Nevertheless, his assertion that enslaved individuals were equivalent to horses remained the prevailing opinion of Britain's highest court.

The Zong incident came to the attention of abolitionist Granville Sharp through Olaudah Equiano, a former enslaved man and abolitionist himself. Sharp explored the possibility of prosecuting the crew for murder. While justice in the truest sense was never attained for those responsible for the massacre, Sharp and Equiano's efforts to publicize the story contributed to the momentum of the abolitionist movement. A few months after the Zong trial, the Society of Friends initiated a campaign against slavery, and four years later, the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was established. Thanks largely to their tireless advocacy, with the Zong incident playing a prominent role, the British Parliament outlawed the Atlantic slave trade in 1807 and abolished slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833.

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