The Zong Massacre was named after the Zong which was the name of a ship owned by James Gregson and was involved in the African Slave Trade of the eighteenth Century.

Background

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The Zong left Africa on September 6, 1781 en route to England on the Middle Passage captained by Sir Luke Collingwood. Their first destination was to be Jamaica and on November 27, 1781 they arrived at an island which they believed to be Jamaica. By November 29, 1781, because of overcrowding, malnutrition and disease seven of the crew and approximately 60 African Slaves had died. That day the Captain (Collingwood) decided to throw the remaining sick overboard. The reason was while in Africa they had packed more slaves than they had room for. The other motive for the massacre of the slaves was that insurance would not pay for sick slaves or slaves that died of illness, so the captain ordered 132 slaves to be drowned. When the Captain was exposed of his insurance fraud and the killing of 132 people, the British courts ruled that he could not claim insurance on the slaves. They did not prosecute him for murdering 132 people.

Slavery Movement

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The captain's scheme was exposed by an ex-slave named Olaudah Equiano. This massacre set off the abolition movement and created a public uproar against slavery. Two famous activists that emerged from the Zong massacre were Thomas Clarkson who wrote the "Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species," and James Ramsay who wrote "Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the Sugar Colonies." Captain Collingwood also succumbed to illness before the voyage ended.

External links

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• Information on The Zong

Slavery | 1781