insurance and the slave trade: how a contract of 'the utmost good faith' prompted abolition

In 2007, the UK marked the 200th anniversary of the passing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807. That legislation marked the abolition of the trade, rather than of slavery itself, which had come some time earlier as a result of legal decisions.

Some may recall that in 2004 a group of descendants of black American slaves sought to sue Lloyd’s of London for underwriting slave ships. The case appears to have fizzled out before any hearing. There was, however, a much earlier hearing that took place in London in 1783, whose publicity pricked the British public’s conscience by highlighting the immorality of those involved in the slave trade and the way human beings had been reduced to mere 'chattels' or goods.

The case centred on the Zong, a ship which had set sail in 1781 from the west coast of Africa with its human cargo of 470 slaves bound for Jamaica. Through a shortage of supplies, over 60 slaves and seven crew died in less than three months. Ill slaves would not fetch a good price once landed and dead slaves were worthless. Under the terms of the ship’s insurance, a claim could only be made if a slave drowned and not if he or she died through natural causes. As a result, the ship’s captain ordered that around 130 of the less healthy slaves be thrown overboard so that he could claim market value for his 'lost cargo' under the terms of the insurance.

The insurance company refused to pay the claim. The slave owners argued that the slaves were 'goods' and that those thrown overboard had to be sacrificed in this way to save supplies which would preserve the others’ health. Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, was clearly uneasy and noted “the case of the slaves was the same as if horses had been thrown overboard.”

Following reports and letters deploring the treatment of the slaves in the daily and weekly newspapers, the case gained public notoriety and gave rise to a profound sense of British tyranny. The historian Professor Walvin, believed that the Zong affair heralded the full force of British antislavery sentiment being unleashed.

In the end, Lord Mansfield and the other judges ordered a retrial, following the slave owners’ win in the court of first instance. If a retrial did take place, no record of it has been found, but the case did much to enlighten and bring closer to home a trade that many then found repulsive and immoral, giving rise to further calls for its abolition.

This story was later captured by JMW Turner in one of his most celebrated works “Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On)” of 1840, now displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The theme was also reflected in Steven Spielberg’s film “Amistad”.

For further information please contact Kath Shimmin, head of Blake Lapthorn's Finance on kath.shimmin@bllaw.co.uk or call 023 8085 7081.