One of the most infamous events in London's history with the slave trade happened outside the guildhall. A ship called the Zong had claimed insurance for a lost cargo of enslaved people headed to the Americas. What had actually occurred was that ships had cast the people overboard chained together in order to create a false insurance claim. The debate at the guildhall was entirely focused on the money unlawfully claimed but it also became a highly publicized case and showed many the true extent of the evil of slavery. It was widely cited in early abolition movements and T
he Zong killings offered a powerful example of the horrors of
the slave trade, stimulating the development of the abolitionist
movement in Britain, which dramatically expanded in size and influence
in the late 1780s.
The window created around this piece of history holds elements to various areas in London besides the guildhall connected with the slave trade. There is a vile of Dock water from West India and Tobacco dock ( places built on the imports of the slave trade) and a dock token from the period.
The coin is a 1780's George the third dock token which would have been used in London during the time of the trail. There is a London docking tradition of casting coins in the dock or nailing them to the mast of your ship to buy a good wind. In this piece I included a coin as a reminder of this concept that things such as divine favor or even human life were thought to be worth a piece of metal. Interestingly I cut myself on a piece of this window and blood dripped on the coin, I cant for the life of me get it off maybe its fitting.
