Readers: George Sephton, Tom Calderbank, Muhammad Khalil and John Graham Davies
Music: Stan Ambrose
Length: 13.56 mins
Slaves chained and packed together
In 1783, a slave ship called “Zong”, owned by Liverpool banker, William Gregson, was becalmed and short of water. The captain ordered 132 slaves to be thrown overboard. The owners won a court judgement that they were due compensation for a cargo lost owing to the “perils of the sea”. Chief Justice Mansfield declared: “The case of the slaves is the same as if horses had been thrown overboard.”