Baron Montesquies affirmed “It is impossible to allow that the negroes are men; because, if we allow them to be men, it will begin to be believed that we ourselves are not Christians.”.

The naval officer writes in clipped factual statements with conventional punctuation and tight regimented lines. Smith reflects on his experience with the painting in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. [23] The captain, Luke Collingwood, had been gravely ill for some time. Reread the text and create a list of words and phrases (only a dozen or so, so you pick the best) that resonate with you or you find especially expressive. Africans continued to be deported to the United States until 1860; and British ships and manufactures were deeply involved in the trade throughout the 19th century. [67], Depiction of the torture of a female slave by Captain John Kimber, produced in 1792. You can listen to author James Walvin in conversation with Gugu Mbatha-Raw, the actress who plays Belle, on BBC Radio Woman’s Hour. Echoing slave narratives, Dabydeen constructs a biography for a discarded stillborn baby as a vehicle to interrogate colonialism, racism, and the depiction of Africans in Western historical narratives. The Zong was owned by a Liverpool slave-trading syndicate that had taken out insurance on the lives of the slaves. In April 1783 he sent an account of the Zong massacre to William Dillwyn, a Quaker, who had asked to see evidence which was critical of the slave trade. Weisbord, Robert (August 1969).

There were still 208 slaves on board, sold for an average of £36 each. [5] The members of the syndicate were Edward Wilson, George Case, James Aspinall, and William, James and John Gregson. Translate these words and patterns into a single coherent poem that makes the reader see Turner’s. Listen to Raine’s recite her poem. This passage is also in keeping with the ekphrastic writings of the times that tended toward the descriptive to address the lack of faithful reproductions that we take for granted today.

[19] The Zong was manned with remnants of the previous Dutch crew and the crew of the William, and with unemployed sailors from the settlements along the African coast. A final despairing wave from wretches doomed to a terrible fate?

[81][82] Clarkson's book had an important influence on the artist J. M. W. Turner, who displayed a painting at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1840 entitled The Slave Ship. By now, in May 1783, Collingwood had died (he died only three days after the ship had arrived in Jamaica) and the case had become a scandal of epic proportions in Britain. When the insurers refused to pay, the resulting court cases held that in some circumstances the deliberate killing of slaves was legal, and that insurers could be required to pay for the slaves' deaths.

Share your inquiry findings through found ekphrastic poems.

The art critic’s fluid commentary in contrast flows across the page unfettered by punctuation, gesticulating with expressive line breaks and verbal flourishes. This ruling was to prove important a century later in R v Dudley and Stephens, which also concerned the justifiability of acts of murder at sea. and heaved from the ship into the ocean. 1999). The Zong 1781-1783. Click to enlarge. "'A Limited Sort of Property': History, Memory and the Slave Ship.

Rupprecht, "A Very Uncommon Case" (2007), pp. Therefore, the insurers argued, it was for Gregson to stump the bill, not them. His motive – to collect the insurance. The ship finally arrived at its destination on 22 December 1781 – a trip that normally took 60 days had taken Collingwood 108. Beyond the legal acts of two hundred years ago and the commemorations of today, it is crucial to understand the full story of the abolition. The case is the same as if wood had been thrown overboard. According to the cultural historian Anita Rupprecht, this signifies the silencing of African voices about the massacre. The legal and political arguments about the Zong inevitably spawned an abundance of contemporary paperwork: legal documents, press coverage, contemporary commentaries, shipping records, correspondence. The official blog of Yale University Press, London. [44] On 19 March 1783, Olaudah Equiano, a freed slave, told the anti-slave-trade activist Granville Sharp of the events aboard the Zong,[45] and Sharp sought legal advice on the following day about the possibility of prosecuting the ship's crew for murder. [72], Despite these setbacks, Sharp's efforts did have some success. The leading abolitionist at the time, Granville Sharp, used the deaths of the slaves to increase public awareness about the slave trade and further the anti-slavery cause. [72][79][80], Descriptions of the massacre on the Zong continued to appear in abolitionist literature in the 19th century. [2] The Zong was a "square stern ship" of 110 tons burden. [30], If the slaves died onshore, the Liverpool ship-owners would have no redress from their insurers. I believe, if I were reduced to rest Turner’s immortality upon any single work, I should choose this. The ship was cruelly overcrowded, carrying 442 Africans, destined to become slaves, accompanied by 17 crew. Reasonator; Scholia; Statistics; … [56] The insurers' legal team replied that Lee's argument could never justify the killing of innocent people, and that the actions of the Zong's crew were nothing less than murder. [35] The account of the King's Bench trial reports that one slave managed to climb back onto the ship. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Rupprecht, "A Very Uncommon Case" (2007), p. 336. [90], The exact number of deaths is unknown, but James Kelsall (the, Stubbs gave evidence in court; Kelsall produced a sworn affidavit in the. Or see Patrick’s book These Upraised Hands BOA Editions, Ltd., 1995, pages 51–63. The Zong was a British slave ship that left São Tomé in 1781 with 400 Africans on board. McQuillen Studios James Mark’s comprehensive book The Unfinished Revolution has been shortlisted for the prestigious Longman-History Today ‘Book of the Year’ Award…. The arts open minds and hearts when they teach cross-curricular concepts.

The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) can help turn art observations and wonderings into inquiry-based research questions that build on student insights and interests. Stillborn from all the signs. [5] The ship was not insured until after it had started its voyage.

[69][70] Neither Portland nor the Admiralty sent him a reply. Captains on the slave ships, realising they were about to be caught, would throw slaves overboard to reduce the fines they had to pay.

Collingwood made the devious claim that his actions had been necessitated by his concerns over the lack of water.