The Zong : a massacre, the law and the end of slavery / James Walvin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walvin, James.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Zong (Ship).

Slave trade--England--Liverpool--History--18th century.

Slave trade--Jamaica--History--18th century.

Enslaved persons--Violence against--History--18th century.

Mass murder--History--18th century.

Seafaring life--History--18th century.

Trials--England--London--History--18th century.

Marine insurance--Great Britain--History.

Slavery--Law and legislation--Great Britain--History.

Antislavery movements--Great Britain--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (269 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

On November 29, 1781, Captain Collingwood of the British ship Zong commanded his crew to throw overboard one-third of his cargo: a shipment of Africans bound for slavery in America. The captain believed his ship was off course, and he feared there was not enough drinking water to last until landfall. This book is the first to examine in detail the deplorable killings on the Zong, the lawsuit that ensued, how the murder of 132 slaves affected debates about slavery, and the way we remember the infamous Zong today.Historian James Walvin explores all aspects of the Zong's voyage and the subsequent trial-a case brought to court not for the murder of the slaves but as a suit against the insurers who denied the owners' claim that their "cargo" had been necessarily jettisoned. The scandalous case prompted wide debate and fueled Britain's awakening abolition movement. Without the episode of the Zong, Walvin contends, the process of ending the slave trade would have taken an entirely different moral and political trajectory. He concludes with a fascinating discussion of how the case of the Zong, though unique in the history of slave ships, has come to be understood as typical of life on all such ships.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. A painting and a slave ship

Chapter 2. The city built on slavery

Chapter 3. Crews and captives

chapter 4. The making of the Zong

chapter 5. All at sea

Chapter 6. An open secret

Chapter 7. In the eyes of the law

Chapter 8. A matter of necessity

Chapter 9. In the wake of the Zong

Chapter 10. Abolition and after

Chapter 11. Remembering the Zong

Notes

Further Reading

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9786613292551

9781283292559

1283292556

9780300180756

0300180756

OCLC:

758389538