The Abolotion of Slavery

Judges, members of Her Majesty’s Court Services of England: For these past few days you have carefully and with the greatest attention examined the evidence and proof submitted to you by the State Prosecution against the crew of the Slaver Zoag (point at accused) who are charged with having committed the gravest crime against humanity and the state. With the greatest possible care you have subjected to investigation and judicial scrutiny every one of these proofs, every fact, every event, every step taken by the accused who in the course of one voyage. Horrible and monstrous is the chain of these crimes against the soles of innocent human beings makes each crew should face the most severe of punishments and this should be used as an example to prevent such inhuman practices from happening in the future.

But firstly, let us all analyse the atrocities against human kind committed by the crew members of Zong. On the 6th of September 1781, the slaver Zong set sail for the West Indies from Sao Tome with a crew of seventeen and a large cargo of four hundred and seventy slaves. The slaver was owned by William Gregson, a Liverpool banker and his colleague, George Case.

These poor four hundred and seventy souls, otherwise known as mere goods or capital in the slave trade, were taken against their will to have a life destined to being handled, selected, separated and sold for profit. They are considered by many, to have no rational intellect, no power of feeling the nearness of relationship, nor sense of the duties belonging to the tier of life. These people were brutally whipped, chained with an iron collar and tortured to a life of despair in the slavers belly.

The treacherous voyage onboard the Zoag in inhumane packed conditions with little or no food and water later became a breeding ground for disease. The dreaded fever and flux were a result a month into the voyage. Many slaves began to die or become mortally sick without the likeliness to recover.