The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery
Siddharth Kara
St. Martin's Press
In late October 1780, a slave ship set sail from the Netherlands, bound for Africa’s Windward and Gold Coasts, where it would take on its human cargo. The Zorg (a Dutch word meaning “care”) was one of thousands of such ships, but the harrowing events that ensued on its doomed journey were unique.
By the time its journey ends, the Zorg would become the first undeniable argument against slavery and would catapult the nascent anti-slavery movement from a minor evangelical cause to one of the most consequential moral campaigns in history―sparking the abolitionist movement in both England and the young United States.