Hearing arguments in the case of the Zong, a slave ship, the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in London states that a massacre of enslaved African “was the same as if Horses had been thrown over board” on June 22, 1783. The crew of the Zong had thrown at least 142 captive Africans into the sea, but the question before the court was not who had committed this atrocity but rather whether the lost “cargo” was covered by insurance. The trial laid bare the horror and inhumanity of the Atlantic slave trade and galvanized the nascent movement to abolish it.
Citation Information
Article Title
Zong slave ship trial
AuthorHistory.com Editors
Website Name
HISTORY
URL
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/zong-slave-ship-trial
Access Date
June 21, 2022
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
June 21, 2021
Original Published Date
June 10, 2020
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