Photo Credit To http://abolition.nypl.org/content/images/image/full/1150350.jpg
Story Highlights
- historical event: The insurance terms predicted 30 pounds per slave in case he was lost during voyage, treating him as if he were merchandise.
On this day the owners of the British ship Zong threw overboard the slaves they were transporting from Africa to Jamaica. They did it to get the insurance money. Namely, on departure from Africa, the ship was overladen with slaves. Soon, many of them started dying from malnutrition and disease.
The ship owners knew that, if they bring dead slaves, they will not receive any compensation for them, so they decided to throw overboard all the dead, sick and helpless in order to claim compensation from the insurance. The terms of insurance predicted 30 pounds per slave in case he was lost during voyage, treating him as if he were merchandise.
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