The Zong Massacre 1781

 

The Zong Massacre

The Zong massacre is a reminder of the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade.

On 29 November 1781, the crew of the English slave ship the 'Zong', sailing to Jamaica, began to throw its cargo of African slaves overboard because of a lack of drinkable water. The slave ship was owned by a group of Liverpool merchants. Some 132 slaves were eventually thrown overboard over a period of two days, and left to drown. The ship owners argued that this became necessary so that others could survive, but another reason, was that it allowed them to cash in on their insurance policy.

The insurers refused to pay out and this led to a legal action and court cases. As the slaves were classed as cargo, and not human beings, the case was not about mass murder. The courts had ruled that the killing of slaves was legal in some cases. The ship had been carrying 442 African slaves which was twice the number the ship was capable of safely transporting. It was discovered that the ship had also sailed 300 miles past its destination of Jamaica. Initially, the Zong massacre had little impact in Britain, but some years later, it became an example of the horrors of slavery and became a catalyst for the abolitionist movement.

I certainly didn't learn about this horrific case from attending an history class at an English state school. Like many white people of my generation, who went to school in the 1950s and 6Os, I was educated as a little imperialist. I first heard about the Zong massacre from watching the 2013 film called 'Belle', which was inspired by the painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle, who was the mixed-race daughter of the nephew of William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and Lord Chief Justice of England. Lord Mansfield ruled on this case in England's Court of King's Bench in 1786.