Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/11/a-group-of-african-slaves-spen.html
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Neat!!!*
*extra exclamation points for the spam filter
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Just as question, with no masters around were they still slaves? I suppose in some sort of legal sense, maybe. If they were specifically put ashore do they qualify as jetsam?
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Apparently France and Mauritius have a low level conflict about who should own the island. Shouldn’t Madagascar have a strong claim based on their people being the first inhabitants?
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For salvage purposes?
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As it happens, when the few survivors of the group were finally rescued, the local officials decided that they had been enslaved illegally in the first place and were therefore free.
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Barely relevant gif:
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It’s relevant; it’s still better to be a castaway lost on a deserted isle than it is to be a slave…
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Your question about the legal issues that went with slavery brought to mind the story of the slave-ship Zong, where slaves were thrown overboard in a water shortage situation, and afterward the owners put in an insurance claim for the murdered slaves:
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I love Futility Closet. They visit some really important history, and the lateral thinking puzzles are always fun.
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There was that thing when the UK Government passed laws to end slavery, they paid compensation to the owners for the loss of their “property”, but didn’t compensate the slaves for their preceding loss of freedom.
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