{"id":9237,"date":"2021-01-26T00:25:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T00:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/?post_type=sh_posts&p=9237"},"modified":"2021-08-01T06:39:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T06:39:46","slug":"zong-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/zong-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"Zong Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.8.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]\n

The\u00a0Zong<\/i>\u00a0massacre<\/b>\u00a0was a mass killing of more than 130 enslaved Africans by the crew of the British\u00a0slave ship<\/a>\u00a0Zong<\/i>\u00a0on and in the days following 29 November 1781.[a]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The Gregson slave-trading syndicate, based in\u00a0Liverpool<\/a>, owned the ship and sailed her in the\u00a0Atlantic slave trade<\/a>. As was common business practice, they had taken out insurance on the lives of the enslaved people as cargo. According to the crew, when the ship ran low on drinking water following navigational mistakes, the crew threw enslaved people overboard into the sea.<\/p>\n

After the slave ship reached port at\u00a0Black River, Jamaica<\/a>,\u00a0Zong<\/i>‘<\/span>s owners made a claim to their insurers for the loss of the enslaved people. When the insurers refused to pay, the resulting court cases (Gregson v Gilbert<\/i>\u00a0(1783) 3 Doug. KB 232) held that in some circumstances, the deliberate murder of enslaved people was legal and that insurers could be required to pay for those who had died. The jury found for the slavers, but at a subsequent appeal hearing the judges, led by\u00a0Lord Chief Justice, the Earl of Mansfield<\/a>, ruled against the syndicate owners, due to new evidence that suggested the captain and crew were at fault.<\/p>\n

Following the first trial,\u00a0Olaudah Equiano<\/a>, a\u00a0freedman<\/a>, brought news of the massacre to the attention of the anti-slavery campaigner\u00a0Granville Sharp<\/a>, who worked unsuccessfully to have the ship’s crew prosecuted for murder. Because of the legal dispute, reports of the massacre received increased publicity, stimulating the\u00a0abolitionist<\/a>\u00a0movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; the\u00a0Zong<\/i>\u00a0events were increasingly cited as a powerful symbol of the horrors of the\u00a0Middle Passage<\/a>, the transoceanic route by which enslaved people were brought to the\u00a0New World<\/a>.[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The non-denominational\u00a0Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade<\/a>\u00a0was founded in 1787. The next year\u00a0Parliament<\/a>\u00a0passed the\u00a0Slave Trade Act 1788<\/a>, its first law regulating the slave trade, to limit the number of enslaved people per ship. Then, in 1791, Parliament prohibited insurance companies from reimbursing ship owners when enslaved people were murdered by being thrown overboard. The massacre has also inspired works of art and literature. It was remembered in London in 2007, among events to mark the bicentenary of the British\u00a0Slave Trade Act 1807<\/a>, which abolished British participation in the African slave trade (though stopped short of outlawing slavery itself). A monument to the murdered enslaved people on\u00a0Zong<\/i>\u00a0was installed at Black River, Jamaica.<\/p>\n

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