In 1781 the good ship Zong was becalmed in mid-Atlantic and running low on supplies so captain threw 132 slaves over the side to their deaths. The owners claimed for them on insurance starting a legal battle which let former slave (& former #Greenwich resident) Olaudah Equiano... 
...(111 Maze Hill since you ask) & Granville Sharp use the case to press for abolition of slave trade & slavery. The owners eventually lost but the Solicitor General would not prosecute the owners because "This is a case of chattels or goods. Blacks are goods and property..."
...it is madness to accuse these... well-serving honourable men of murder… The case is the same as if wood had been thrown overboard” Sometimes we can't shelter behind the law and sometimes we must break it. I'm not weeping for the Bristol Harbour submarine
