What is the Zong slave ship?

The Zong was an overloaded slave ship which crossed the Atlantic in 1781. Due to a navigational error, the ship missed its destination in the Caribbean and had to spend an extra three weeks at sea. Drinking water was growing short and sickness had spread among the slaves and crew.

What happened to the ship called Zong?

The Zong massacre was a mass killing of more than 130 enslaved Africans by the crew of the British slave ship Zong on and in the days following 29 November 1781. According to the crew, when the ship ran low on drinking water following navigational mistakes, the crew threw enslaved people overboard into the sea.

How many African slaves were aboard the Zong?

442 enslaved Africans
The Zong left Accra in August of 1781, carrying 442 enslaved Africans and bound for the colonial plantations of Jamaica. As was common in the slave trade, the Zong was grossly overcrowded, carrying more than double the amount of people a ship its size could safely transport.

What decision did Captain Collingwood make about the slaves on board the Zong?

To maximise his profits, Captain Luke Collingwood took the decision to murder 122 of the slaves, throwing them overboard in order to claim insurance money. The Zong case can be used as a case study into conditions on board slave ships.

What food did slaves eat on the ships?

At “best”, the enslavers fed enslaved people beans, corn, yams, rice, and palm oil. However, enslaved African people were not always fed every day. If there was not enough food for the sailors (human traffickers) and the slaves, the enslavers would eat first, and the enslaved might not get any food.

Which nation abolished slavery first?

Haiti (then Saint-Domingue) formally declared independence from France in 1804 and became the first sovereign nation in the Western Hemisphere to unconditionally abolish slavery in the modern era.

How many African slaves were thrown overboard?

The case of the Zong Massacre is an example of the indifference towards the lives of the enslaved Africans. During the voyage of a slave ship, the Zong, from Guinea in West Africa to Jamaica in the Caribbean, the ship’s captain, Luke Collingwood, ordered for 132 of the 440 enslaved Africans to be thrown overboard.

Do sharks follow ships?

More came from Captain Hugh Crow, who made ten slaving voyages and wrote from personal observation that sharks “have been known to follow vessels across the ocean, that they might devour the bodies of the dead when thrown overboard.”

How many hours did slaves work?

On a typical plantation, slaves worked ten or more hours a day, “from day clean to first dark,” six days a week, with only the Sabbath off. At planting or harvesting time, planters required slaves to stay in the fields 15 or 16 hours a day.

What did House slaves look like?

Whereas many field workers were not given sufficient clothing to cover their bodies, house slaves tended to be dressed with more modesty, sometimes in the hand-me-downs of masters and mistresses. Most slaves lived in similar dwellings, simple cabins furnished sparely. A few were given rooms in the main house.

Who was the last country to abolish slavery?

Mauritania
Mauritania is the world’s last country to abolish slavery, and the country didn’t make slavery a crime until 2007. The practice reportedly affects up to 20% of the country’s 3.5 million population (pdf, p. 258), most of them from the Haratin ethnic group.