Antigua was barely out of sight when Captain Hopkins, the leader of the brig Sally, realized there was a problem. The small crew was getting sick with the flux, a disease later known as dysentery. The weakened state of the men was alarming, as belowdecks in the hold was a live cargo that outnumbered the skeleton crew. The cargo was a boatload of African slaves who had been captured or sold into slavery in Africa, branded, and then delivered to a coastal port for export. Beaten, underfed, and bound in chains, the slaves usually were placed aboard a British ship for the transatlantic passage. Many did not survive the journey. Those who did survive were then placed in holding pens in another port. There they were fed and bathed, as the smell of confinement was enough to make the neighboring farmers complain. The slaves were then brought to market to be resold to an American trader, beginning the process of confinement at sea yet again.
When the crew was outnumbered by as much as a hundred to one, it was never safe to allow the Africans on deck. The condition of the Sally, however, was becoming desperate. Captain Hopkins decided to take a chance; he allowed a handful of his slaves to be brought topside in order to augment the efforts of the crew. The Africans quickly realized they had the advantage, and they began freeing the others in an attempt to take the floating prison. The captain was armed and quickly killed or wounded several slaves and began ordering the others to jump overboard. After eighty men were forced into the Atlantic, order was restored.
The owner of the ship, Nicholas Brown and Company, was quickly notified of the loss, which it had the foresight to guard against with insurance. The Newport Insurance Company, the Bristol Insurance Company, the Mount Hope Insurance Company, and other large companies that dominate the New England economy got their start from marine insurance. One modern insurer, Aetna, recently issued a public apology for its role in insuring the lives of slaves. While that does not sound unlike modern life insurance, the difference is that the slaves were being insured as property.
https://exploringrealhistory.blogspot.com/2019/02/part-6secret-societies-of-americas.html
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