The Zong was a slave ship that sailed from Accra on 18 August 1782 with 442 enslaved people, heading for Jamaica.
During the voyage, due to a navigational error it was believed that the ship was further from its destination than presumed that the ship did enough drinking water for all on board.
The crew decided to throw 142 slaves overboard and the insurance they had taken out to minimise their expected financial loss.
The insurers refused to pay up and slave owners took the insurers to court and brought the case to public attention in the mid-1780s.
This case was instrumental in helping stimulate the abolitionist movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It inspired the formation of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787. The slave trade was abolished in the British Empire twenty years later.
To learn more about how Belfast citizens helped the Royal Navy in its task, sign up for the ANTI SLAVERY BELFAST TOUR via the website.
