The Zorg by Siddharth Kara [Paperback]

This gripping work of historical non-fiction reconstructs the 1781 voyage of the Dutch slave ship Zorg, during which more than a hundred enslaved Africans were thrown overboard to protect the crew and remaining cargo. When the ship’s owners attempted to claim insurance compensation for the deaths, the resulting court case raised a fundamental question about whether enslaved Africans could be legally treated as property or recognised as human beings. Siddharth Kara traces how the case helped fuel the emerging abolitionist and human-rights movement against the Atlantic slave trade.