⭐⭐⭐⭐
Not much kept this from being a 5-star review.
In The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery, Siddharth Kara explores the
Zorg, a ship that transported slaves across the Atlantic around the time
of the American Revolution. On one fateful journey in 1781, a number of
factors came together that led to the massacre of more than a hundred
enslaved people. The story was horrifying enough to make it a rallying
cry in England that helped lead to the end of the slave trade and,
indeed, the end of slavery in the UK. And it came to prominence because
of an insurance claim.
I learned so much from this book,
especially about the slave trade, from when Africans were captured
through their journeys to the coast, their stays at the coast, the trips
across the ocean, and auctions upon arriving at their destinations, and
how abolition happened in the UK. But there's a LOT more in there.
You're reading along and suddenly you get to something like "By the time
independence was won, nearly half of all munitions used by the
Americans had shipped through Sint Eustatius, and about half of all
American communications with allies in Europe also passed through the
island" (loc. 566). I had never even heard of Sint Eustasius! The
British currency "guinea" comes from the slave trade, which makes SO
much sense if you think about it. And while I was familiar with a lot of
the abolitionist writings (largely thanks to having written my
undergrad thesis on the effect of abolitionist writings on the
Constitution and yes, thank you, Kara did name authors I recognized and
was like "I read that pamphlet!"), the ramifications of the American
Revolution on the slave trade were all new as well.
So why did I knock it down? The way Kara told the story didn't quite
work for me. There was a lot of jumping among characters--and there
were a lot of characters, which made sense, but it was sometimes hard to
remember who was who and their place in the story. He also tended to
fall back on "This decision would have disastrous consequences down the
line" or "Who knows how things may have happened differently had this
not happened" and the like, which I hate. This story doesn't
particularly need foreshadowing.
That said, it was shocking the
number of things that had to have happened in a certain way to allow for
this atrocity to have happened, and Kara's research shines as he
details it. He manages to balance the story of what happened and why
without losing sight of the fact that the slaves who died were people.
The book is a hard read, but Kara manages to find a balance; he writes
about many egregiously awful details in a fairly straightforward way,
but you can feel his horror at everything he learned. Is he at times
clearly judgmental of people in this? He is, and who can blame him? If
anyone deserves harsh judgment, it's these men profiting off the slave
trade.
His utter contempt for Robert Stubbs, a former slave ship
captain and former governor of a British African fortification, is both
unmistakable and warranted. This man brought his 12-year-old son with
him to Africa and then kind of just...left him there. Kara has many
Thoughts about Stubbs and you don't have to wonder why. (Sample: "Robert
Stubbs--a 'scoundrel' who brought his twelve-year-old son to Africa and
abandoned him there, who used his position as governor at Anomabu to
deal in slaves for personal profit, and who was 'wicked enough to say
what he cannot justify.'" [loc. 3204])
The last third or so of
the book is focused on how the horrors of the Zorg came into the public
consciousness, the building of the abolitionist movement, and how
progress was won in Parliament. The various trials include some details
that Kara left out earlier in the book, probably for shock value when
they come up in the trial, and let me tell you, it works. I
gasped out loud, the way I have no doubt the spectators did. But I also
found it reassuring, how progress can build and coincidences can bring
people together. And also how people can change.
(Not Stubbs. Stubbs doesn't change.)
It's a hard book to read, but it's definitely worth your time.
Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the free advance copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
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