The Zong: A Massacre, the Law and the End of Slavery

by James Walvin

The first full review of the mass murder by crew members on the slave ship Zong and the lasting repercussions of this horrifying event

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Africa, 18th Century, Law, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

James Walvin taught for many years at the University of York where he is now Professor of History Emeritus. He also held visiting positions in the Caribbean, the U.S.A. and Australia. He won the prestigious Martin Luther King Memorial Prize for his book Black and White, and has published widely on the history of slavery and the slave trade. His book The People's Game was a pioneering study of the history of football and remains in print thirty years after its first publication.

Reviews

[Kari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book after watching "Belle," and how I found that is also a story, but currently irrelevant. Point is, I was infuriated when I heard about the Zong in that movie, because it was such an important point in British law, and I had NEVER heard of it. I thought that if it was that important, I should have at least heard whispers, but I hadn't, and so I found this book. So now to the part of the review that actually matters. This book was great. Obviously. I gave it 5 stars. The writing was easy to read and flowed, the organization was logical and chronological. He explained the background of the Zong, the owners, the social setting, the Atlantic slave trade itself, before moving into the incident on the ship itself. He discussed the legal ramifications, and the abolition movement in relation to the Zong, which I loved. I highlighted parts of the book that really hit me, and at one point, when he's talking about later incidents of throwing slaves overboard, after 1783, with a single paragraph of well-chosen words (and the topic of the paragraph was atrocious in itself) had me sitting silently in shock and horror for a solid minute while I tried to come up with a response to the incident, and tried not to scream in indignation. I couldn't respond, but I did manage not to scream. This book just lays out the entirety of the Zong and its beginnings, the incident, and ramifications so well. This is a book I will cherish for years to come.

[Nightwitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this is about a specific massacre which happened in 1781, it is also more broadly about the end of the slave trade in England and the growth of the abolition movement in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The brief summary is that the Zong was a slave ship which, in 1781, ran low on water and made some navigation errors and responded by throwing several hundred slaves overboard. That isn’t why it became famous, though. It became famous because the ship’s owners then sued the insurance company for reimbursement for the people the crew had murdered. The growing British abolitionist movement, notably Granville Sharp, seized on the case as vivid proof of the horrific inhumanity of the slave trade. The book is vivid and readable, although the content is horrifying (as you can guess from the topic).

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greed and entitlement led the Owners of the Zong to claim against their insurers for slaves that their crew had deliberately thrown overboard and killed because of a water-shortage. You can't say for sure that the publicity and immediacy of the case brought abolition to a head, but it certainly gave it a boost. I grew up in Dublin, where popular sentiment was that the British never did anything that wasn't in their own best interest. But the abolition of slavery in 1807 was the one shining triumph of a moral argument over selfishness.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was amazed at how much of western wealth and culture was built on the slave trade. Also at how a small minority of people of conscience (black and white) spent decades trying to end this terrible injustice. Impeccably researched. Appalling story to tell. But anyone who wants to know how we got where we are from then to now - a must read.

[Lauriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

extremely well done, very important book. gives a concise run down of british slave trade and the role of the zong in it. in its own way life-changing book for me, personally.

[Hans Ostrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sound, superbly researched history of and surrounding the slave-ship, the Zong, which got lost in the Caribbean and ran out of water; the crew then threw the remaining slaves overboard to die.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

The case of the Zong was one that changed the political scene for the abolitionist movement. It illustrated, for many, for the first time, the utter horror that was the slave trade. But before it gained infamy, before it could become part of the movement, it was simply the case of 132 African people drowned for an insurance claim.

There's no point in glamourizing it, in dulling the blow, the Zong and the subsequent case of Gregson v. Gilbert was a trial in which slavers tried to be financially compensated for mass murder.

Because of a navigational error enroute to Jamaica, the Zong ended up lost at sea for more days than they had water for. The solution? Indiscriminately throw men, children and women overboard in batches. Even worse the only reason we know about this case today is because the ship owners tried to sue their insurers to be recompensed for the lost 'cargo'. (And while they were eventually convicted... it was for fraud if you can imagine that.)

Anyway, when I first heard about this a few months ago I had chills, there's a certain heaviness that befell me. Reading this was a unique form of torture, it is, without any doubt, fabulously written and spares no details, but it does not spare details. One part that really struck me was after a chapter of hearing about the horrors the 442 Africans faced aboard the Zong was the added detail they had no idea where they were going, or that they were going somewhere. The torture mentally would've went on forever. Not withstanding when the interim captain and crew started actually murdering them, they could hear all the people thrown overboard screaming. One english speaking African man before being killed went so far as to beg for all of their lives.

It didn't work.

It was really tough for me to get through this, because it isn't a work of fiction, the fact that we as people are capable of such casual hate, or maybe more apt, indifference to suffering is quite cowing. Halfway through I dispensed any notions I had that we have a natural propensity for good... in the wake of the results of the American elections, ongoings in Gaza, children being murdered, women being burned alive in commercial ovens, husbands assaulting their wives, and letting 'friends' partake... it felt too topical, too heavy.

But I guess what is most amazing about this book is it doesn't leave you with the events of the Zong. Instead it leaves us with its legacy. I am outraged, I'm horrified, but so were the people then. Granville Sharp dedicated his life to the abolition movement, forsaking everything else in his life but making the slave trade a condemned thing. And honestly hearing about all the people who, upon hearing about the Zong, changed the course of their lives to bring such an abominable practice to its end... it was hopeful in the softest way. We might not have a propensity for good, but neither is there an inclination for evil.

The slave trade has always been a monolith for me. It was always only been the idea of Black people being enslaved, Black people being hurt by the western world to the minute level of legislation, reading this was a retelling of sorts. It was never as simple as it 'just happening'. I didn't know how many rebellions had been on slave ships. They were chained yes, but not so much to subjugate as a measure of protection. The crew and captains of slave ships were in constant fear of the African people they'd taken. Of uprisings, which happened more often than I would have ever thought.

And that hopeful feeling is my takeaway from this, that at every turn people have always been outraged, horrified when we should be horrified, things have never 'just happened' regardless of end results. And I know that since its a history book, it is necessitated to be a factual retelling of events and one would think there should be less to laud in terms of prose and craft. But this book was accessible, guttural and most extremely comprehensive.


5 stars

[Karen R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heinous acts of throwing 132 live slaves overboard and collecting insurance after their captain died. Horrific, shocking, and the writing well researched and extremely well done.

[Simon Parsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of the Zong before reading Blood and Sugar (Laura Shepherd-Robinson), but I am glad I know about it now.....though maybe "glad" is not the right word. I was always aware of the African slave trade, but never knew a lot about it, like those contemporaries of the Zong, it has been a key to increasing my own understanding of the realities of the slave trade. If you are interested in the history or England/UK, please read.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really fascinating book about the Zong and ensuing court case. A must-read for history buffs and those interested in enslavement, the Middle Passage, maritime law, and Britain's abolitionist movement.

[Susann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and...

What brought about the beginning of the end of it. Quite all encompassing, hinging on the two trials between the owners of the slave ship, Zong, and the insurance company refusing to pay for the "lost cargo" of 132 slaves thrown overboard to their death due to a low water supply. The author has a very accessible writing style which ties in lots of elements to explain the significance of this historical event. Shocking are the attititude up to the late 1700's of the law, politics, commerce, "morality" and much else to the institution of slavery and its heartless abuse of black Africans. This incident was by no means atypical but it did bring to the fore in the public eye the rampant horror that underpinned their enjoyment of sugar, tobacco and other slave produced products as well as a very fine life style for many English people. I did not know the importance of Liverpool and its rise to prosperity based upon the slave trade. Excellent read!

[Jeannette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned alot about salvery, most of which I wish that I had't. From the "gathering" of Africans, putting them in forts and then loading them on the slave ships in horrendous conditions. The trips took months sometimes up to a year. The Zong had the distinction of contributing to the abolition of slavery in 1834 in Britain. Although it was years after the crew if the Zong threw 130 slaves overboard because the crew made a tactical sailing error and was running low on water. The slaves were handcuffed and shakled when the were thrown overboard - men, women and children.
This book really brings the horror of the whole salvery story into focus. The inhumane treatment of Aficans taken for slavery numbered in the millions world wide. Most of us, here in the USA know the story, what we have never been told is what this book brings to light. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[Ana-Maria Bujor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story I knew nothing about before reading the book. While most of it is legal drama, it is highly readable and easy to follow. Big props to the author for putting all the research together to create a cohesive narrative about a time when people were being insured as cargo.
I especially appreciated the descriptions of life on slave ships and the dehumanization resulting from it, both in the case of slaves and the crew. But the book is not all doom and gloom, also showing how a small group of people can make massive changes while fighting some of the wealthiest and most powerful people of their time. A really solid little book about a subject that is mostly unexplored in mainstream media.

[Christopher Gould · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting read. I didn’t know anything about the story about the Zong until I read the book “Freedom,” by the same author, and his discussion of the influence of the unspeakable crime aboard this slave ship led me to this book.

[nickoli :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for my history class, but it was so interesting. Short but packed full of information, it would take much more than a week to sift through all of it (but alas I only have a week). Feeling bogged down by all of the work I have to do, but at least part of it got me another book this year.

[Sophia Rozanski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for history class. I found it strangely entertaining for a study on such a serious topic.

[Dave Pier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starting the year at the end of the alphabet

[Leif · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solidly researched and very well written treatise on Liverpool, the British slave trade across the Atlantic, and the "example that becomes the rule" of the Zong, perhaps the most infamous slave ship I know. Highly recommended, especially as a historical overview (as opposed to the interrogation of, say, Specters of the Atlantic: Finance Capital, Slavery, and the Philosophy of History) to an event that today shakes the minds of readers and writers exposed to it---Walvin knows his stuff, and he's earned his chops over the swath of books on his CV. Recommended also for those who've read Zong!, Turner: New and Selected Poems, or Feeding the Ghosts as background material.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an easy read, but fascinating to read how badly we treated black people during the slave trade, treating them as cargo rather than people. Quite horrifying but fantastic to see normal people, believing it to be wrong told the story repeatedly to anyone who would listen, and from their actions, eventually slavery was seen to be abhorrent and was banished,