Granville Sharp Presses Prosecution in the Zong Case, Establishing Abolition as a Legal Cause

Abolitionist Granville Sharp learned of the Zong massacre and pressed the Crown to prosecute Captain Collingwood for murder. Lord Mansfield, the same judge who decided Somerset, ruled that insurers must pay the claim, treating the killing as a commercial dispute rather than murder. No criminal charges were brought. But the case galvanized British abolitionism: Sharp publicized it widely, it directly inspired Thomas Clarkson's research, and Olaudah Equiano brought it to Sharp's attention.