James Stout

Right.

And this changes the thinking of a lot of people like Mansfield who are not abolitionists, but who are like, oh shit, but if like, if we establish this precedent, people might just start murdering ships full of enslaved people to just get the insurance money.

And that seems like a nightmare.

Like that's even bad to me.

And I kind of suck ass.

You know?

So this fact is shaking even to guys like Judge Manfield.

And he ruled, quote, to be sure, what Mr. Haywood has observed is a very material circumstance.

So many Negroes thrown overboard after the rain came without any account of how they came to do it.

It is so uncommon a case.

I think upon the ground of reexamination, it ought to go to a new trial.

And he grants a motion for retrial.

Now, this is never to be.

There's not a second trial because William Grigson, head of the slaving syndicate, decides that a second trial is not going to go well, right?

And it's just going to waste money.

So let's just cut our losses and return to –

operating the slave trade at a massive, massive level.

His insurers celebrate their victory.

But you could be forgiven for seeing that at this point, the case is like an overall mixed bag or even a wash for the cause of abolitionism, right?

Because...