Why did the crew of the zong ship throw some captive africans overboard?

This ship sailed from Accra (in Ghana) with more enslaved people than it could transport with guarantees. At that time, ships built in Britain could transport 1.75 enslaved people per ton of ship capacity; in the “Zong”, the ratio was four per ton. It was very unusual for a ship of the relatively small size of the “Zong” to transport so many people.

The “Zong” slave ship was owned by a slave trade union in Liverpool that had taken out insurance for the lives of slaves. During the navigation there were some technical problems and the ship began to run out of water. At that time the crew makes the decision to throw several enslaved people into the sea. For what purpose did they do this? The owners of the “Zong” wanted to earn money and claimed their insurers for financial compensation for the loss of the slaves.

The insurance refused to pay but in a trial that was carried out later, it was determined that in some circumstances the elimination of slaves was legal, and therefore, it could be claimed that the insurance took financially responsibility for the deaths of the enslaved people.

The captives’ deaths were covered by insurance.

yup! you are correct it is b.

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