James Stout

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's an unusual position still and a brave one to assert that time.

Right, right.

Especially when your whole family are slave traders.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So from the jump, there are some uncomfortable tensions behind the scenes in this case.

The insurers and their counsel benefited from Granville Sharpe's lobbying and legal mind, but they're not on the same side precisely.

The insurers are slavery profiteers.

They don't want the trade to end.

They don't want abolition.

They're making money off of it, right?

They just don't want to pay money in this case.

Sharpe is on board with them because he also doesn't want Gregson to get a bunch of money for killing these – or for his people killing these people.

But he also sees this case fundamentally as a way to set further precedents on the road to ending the slave trade, right?

He is thinking about this from the jump, that I am doing this because it's a step to something better.

Now, Judge Mansfield tries to deny that possibility from the outset of the trial, insisting that this case is purely regarding the insurance policy on the Zong or the Zorg.

Mansfield insists the case of the slaves was the same as if horses had been thrown overboard.

And for the most part, the actual arguments in the case do not rely on enslaved Africans having more rights than a horse, right?