The Zong Massacre: Insurance, Murder, and the Law

In November 1781, the captain of the British slave ship Zong ordered 132 enslaved Africans thrown overboard to their deaths—not in a storm, not in a revolt, but because he wanted to collect insurance money. This episode of The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering examines the Zong massacre, the subsequent legal case that treated enslaved people as cargo, and the unlikely figure who brought the atrocity to public attention: Olaudah Equiano, the formerly enslaved abolitionist. We explore how the case became a rallying cry for the abolition movement, the legal doctrine that valued lives as property, and the chilling logic of maritime insurance in the 18th century. Gregson v. Gilbert, Lord Mansfield, Granville Sharp, and the legal battle that redefined humanity in the eyes of the law—all set against the brutal economics of the triangular trade. #ZongMassacre #Zong #OlaudahEquiano #GranvilleSharp #LordMansfield #GregsonvGilbert #SlaveShip #MaritimeInsurance #AbolitionMovement #1781 #BritishSlaveTrade #TriangularTrade #MiddlePassage #InsuranceFraud #LegalHistory #HumanRights #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo