"Over the nearly four centuries during which the transatlantic slave trade operated, 12.5 million Africans were trafficked by Europeans to the Americas. 1.8 million of them perished on the voyage under scarcely imaginable conditions of overcrowding, filth and disease. Some threw themselves overboard. And others were thrown into the sea. In The Zorg, Siddharth Kara tells two stories. The first is of a harrowing incident aboard the eponymous slave ship the murder of 132 Africans by the British crew."
"The tale begins in Liverpool, a city which at its economic zenith was responsible for 40% of the European slave trade. Investing in slavery was a profitable activity not just for the elites but for the lower classes as well. One investor, William Gregson, saved up his rope-making wages, ploughed them into the trade and eventually became a rich burgher and mayor of the city."
Twelve and a half million Africans were transported across the Atlantic over nearly four centuries, with 1.8 million dying en route from overcrowding, filth and disease. Many victims committed suicide or were thrown overboard. A notorious case involved the Zorg, where 132 Africans were murdered by a British crew. That atrocity helped galvanize abolitionist efforts leading to the 1807 end of the Atlantic slave trade. Liverpool was a major slave-trade hub, with investors from working-class rope-makers to city leaders financing voyages and trading commodities for enslaved people.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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