In 1781, the captain of the British slave ship Zong, Luke Collingwood, deliberately ordered that over 130 enslaved Africans be thrown overboard because the ship was running low on water. Under the rules of marine insurance at the time, the loss of enslaved people due to illness during the voyage could not be claimed. But if the enslaved were "jettisoned" to save the ship, they could be written off as an insurable loss. So the ship’s owners could file a claim and be reimbursed for the value of the lost "cargo."
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