The Zong Massacre Trial: Law, Slavery, and Insurance Fraud

In November 1781, the brig Zong departed from Gorée Island with over 130 enslaved Africans packed into its hold. When a navigational error sent the ship off course toward Jamaica instead of Barbados, Captain Luke Green and his crew faced dwindling water supplies. Rather than risk losing their human cargo to thirst or revolt, they ordered forty-four men, women, and children thrown overboard to drown. This act was not merely an atrocity; it was calculated insurance fraud. The owners in Liverpool filed a claim for the lost 'goods,' arguing that the killings were necessary to save the rest of the ship. The ensuing legal battle at King’s Bench brought together some of Britain’s most prominent lawyers, including Granville Sharp and Lord Mansfield. We trace how this horrific event forced British courts to confront the legal fiction of slavery itself—whether human beings could truly be treated as chattel property subject to maritime salvage laws. The trial revealed the moral rot at the heart of imperial commerce and became a catalyst for the abolitionist movement. #ZongMassacre #GranvilleSharp #LordMansfield #SlaveTradeLaw #BritishHistory #KingdomBench #Abolitionism #MaritimeLaw #InsuranceFraud #LiverpoolSlavers #LukeGreen #CaptainCollingwood #Absalom #KongoPeople #ImperialEconomy #HumanChattel #FexingoHistory #History Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo