The Zong Incident Was Unfortunate, But Not a Massacre
I saw the Jamaica Observer editorial cartoon on July 28 depicting a man representing Great Britain hiding behind a cross labelled “Zong slave ship tragedy” and another man representing a Jamaican cursing the British man for hiding from his responsibilities to pay reparations.
While the cartoonist is very much within his right to his opinion, the impression that was being portrayed by the cartoon, that the occurrence was a massacre, is wrong.
First, I must say that it was indeed unfortunate that the captain of the slave ship, the Zong, saw the need to dump his cargo of slaves into the sea in 1781.
However, the “tragedy” that is being portrayed wasn’t seen as such at the time. We must always remember that when we look at historical events, the context must be understood.
For people to be killed like that today would be seen as very wrong and immoral, however, the world during the 1780s was very different from our own today. Slavery was not an immoral institution at the time, and it certainly was not a crime.
I must say that I am not holding any brief for the captain of the Zong, however, when he decided to dispose of his slave cargo, he did not take the decision lightly.
The captain, a Mr. Collingwood, wanted to make as much from the Zong as he could. Surely, the more slaves he could carry; the more money he would make. As such, the ship was packed with over 440 slaves. However, luck was not on his side.
By mid- November, when the ship reached the mid-Atlantic, the winds had deserted him and the Zong was stalling. By the end of the month, sixty slaves and seven crew were already dead. In addition to this, more were becoming sick. Collingwood realized that by the time he reached the Caribbean, more would be dead. As a slave trader, he couldn’t sell dead slaves, so he had to do something.
However, considering, as most at the time did, that the slaves were cargo and not human beings, Collingwood realized that if the slaves were “lost at sea” he could collect the insurance money. As such, he took the decision to dump over one hundred and thirty slaves into the sea. However, Collingwood wouldn’t find much luck in that either – he died three days after the ship arrived in Jamaica, probably from the fever that he was suffering from while on board the Zong.
Anyway, when the insurance company decided to investigate the incident and did, it refused to pay the ship’s owner for the “lost” cargo. It is interesting to note that the ship’s owner and the crew were never charged with murder, but with attempting to defraud the insurance company. It may seem harsh and inhumane today, but that was the world of morality then.
The point I am making here is that, as harsh as it may sound, the British really don’t have much to apologize (or hiding) for. Looking at what happened with the Zong within its correct historical context, it is clear that while the incident was most unfortunate, but it was not inhumane.
Michael A. Dingwall
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