The Zorg - by Siddharth Kara (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Powerful ... gripping ... a book of great importance and one that will likely become a classic." --Marcus Rediker, The New York Times Book Review

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.

After reaching Africa, the Zorg was captured by a privateer and came under British command. With a new captain and crew, the ship was crammed with 442 slaves and departed in 1781 for Jamaica. But a series of unpredictable weather events and mistakes in navigation left the ship drastically off course and running out of water. So a proposition was put forth: Save the crew and the most valuable of the slaves--by throwing dozens of people, starting with women and children, overboard.

What followed was a fascinating legal drama in England's highest court that turned the brutal calculus of slavery into front-page news. The case of the Zorg catapulted 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.

Siddharth Kara utilizes primary-source research, gripping storytelling, and painstaking investigation to uncover the Zorg's journey, the lives and fates of the slaves on board, and the mysterious identity of the abolitionist who finally revealed the truth of what happened on the ship.

Review Quotes

"Mass murder aboard a slave transport, half-forgotten today but an iconic event...A vivid historical footnote, but also a milestone." --Kirkus

"enthralling and elegant...a harrowing glimpse of slavery's horrors and an incisive investigation into one of history's most reviled crimes." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Based on extensive primary research, this powerful tale about greed and cruelty highlights the nearly forgotten story that launched a key campaign against enslavement. VERDICT Readers interested in the study of enslavement and maritime history will seek out this title." --Library Journal

About the Author

SIDDHARTH KARA is the New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize finalist author of Cobalt Red, and also was a finalist for the PEN John Kenneth Galbraith Award, and shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year. Kara previously won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize. An author, researcher, and activist on modern slavery, Kara has lectured at Harvard University and held a professorship at the University of Nottingham. He divides his time between Los Angeles and London.