Behind the Bastards – X-Mas Special: The Heroes Who Ended The Slave Trade (Part One)

Cool Zone Media & iHeartPodcasts | December 23, 2025
Host: Robert Evans | Guests: James Stout, Sophie

Episode Overview

This special Christmas episode of Behind the Bastards flips the show’s usual format, focusing not on history’s villains but on the inspiring story of how a group of British abolitionists helped end the Atlantic slave trade. Before getting to the heroes, the episode extensively covers the nightmarish realities of the slave trade’s rise and its centrality to Western wealth and imperialism—laying essential groundwork for understanding the scale of the achievement. The conversation is raw, darkly humorous, historically detailed, and ultimately setting up a story of hope for future installments.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Worst Institution in Human History (08:00 - 29:05)

• Global Context of Slavery

  • Slavery was common in many historical societies, but not all enslaving systems were equally horrifying.
  • Ancient Roman slavery was brutal but lacked the racial ideology of later chattel slavery and allowed social mobility for freed people.

• The Atlantic Slave Trade’s Unique Cruelty

  • Robert: “For all its horrors, nothing the Romans did came close to the level of sadistic cruelty that we saw in the slave ships of the Atlantic trade.” (11:26)
  • Atlantic slavery, especially as developed by European empires, stands out for its racism, industrial scale, and dehumanization.

• Origins and Expansion

  • Portuguese encounters with West Africa (Ghana, 1471) start as gold trade, quickly pivot to enslaved human trade as sugar cane farming booms.
  • Sugar is more lucrative than gold but “hell to farm,” leading to the import of enslaved labor from Africa after indigenous peoples are wiped out by disease and abuse (16:08).
  • “They could just pay locals to make it, but...they kill a lot of those local indigenous people quickly. So you need a shitload of slaves.” – Robert (16:08)
  • The “Triangular Trade” of Europe–Africa–New World explodes.

The Machinery of Brutality (19:22 - 38:24)

• Elmina Castle: The Model of Horror

  • Originally a gold fort, quickly converted to a slave dungeon with literal class stratification—luxury levels above, “dungeons” below (19:22).
  • Quote from PBS.org: “The floor of the dungeon, as a result of centuries of impacted filth and human excrement, is now several inches higher than it was when it was built.” (20:02)
  • Repeated rape and sexual violence were ‘perks’ for slavers and functionaries. (21:05)

• Routine Atrocities

  • Insurrections are met with starvation and public display of corpses to deter others: “Slaves were not given food or water and eventually died. The British displayed the corpses to the other slaves as an example of the consequences of resistance, after which the bodies were thrown into the ocean for the sharks.” (25:27)

• African and Arab Involvement

  • European traders rarely “raid the interior” directly—African and Arab traders capture and transport captives for European goods, notably guns.
  • “Slavery existed in Africa...but in a very different context. Enslaved Africans sold into the Atlantic trade became chattel – their only worth considered in monetary terms.” (Mike Kay via Robert, 28:24)

Slave Trade Economics and Global Impact (29:09 - 41:53)

• The Business of Death

  • British society becomes fundamentally intertwined with—and enriched by—the trade.
  • “By the late 1700s, British imports of sugar from Jamaica are worth five times as much as the combined value of all the imports from the thirteen colonies.” (32:24)
  • Maintenance of plantations required constant influx of enslaved people due to horrendous death rates; “about a third of enslaved Africans died within three years of reaching the Caribbean.” (37:34)
  • “It is no exaggeration to say that slaves were treated worse than animals in the Caribbean...” (38:01)

• Society Complicit

  • Political, economic, and religious establishment in Britain is deeply embedded.
  • “Every mayor of Liverpool has a financial interest in human trafficking.” – Robert (39:46)
  • The Church of England owned plantations and was financially involved in slavery. Only fringe groups (mainly Quakers) opposed it on moral grounds: “Hard to pick a group...who are more consistently right than the Quakers.” (41:53)

Emerging Moral Resistance and the Moment of Change (49:00 - 54:12)

• The Astonishing Pivot to Abolition

  • Despite slavery’s deep roots, British society rapidly turns toward abolition in the early 1800s—a major social shift.
  • The anti-slave trade movement is described as “the first social movement dedicated entirely to the recognition and protection of other people’s rights.” (50:20)
  • Robert critiques the modern racist myth that Europeans ending slavery is a unique moral achievement: “[It] has to be tempered by the acknowledgment that...they were fighting...against the uniquely Western chattel slave trade...” (51:17)

• The Zong (Zorg) Massacre—A Turning Point

  • The episode closes in on a case study: the massacre on the British slave ship Zong/Zorg, which was pivotal in sparking organized abolitionism.

Case Study: The Zong Massacre (54:12 - Episode End)

• Profile in Monstrosity: Robert Stubbs, Slave Captain

  • Chronicling the incompetent, cruel, and grasping figure of Robert Stubbs, who rises through British slaving circles despite a stunning record of failure and callousness.
    • “He’s got one move, and it’s slavery.” – Robert (64:39)
    • “People are trading [his] letters in the fort because they’re funny—they’re so badly written.” (66:26)
  • Comical yet chilling incompetence: “He brings his 12-year-old boy...makes him work and pockets the kid’s salary.” (63:44)

• The Zong Massacre: What Happened

  • Due to crowded conditions, poor navigation, and disease, the ship runs short on supplies. Captain and crew decide to throw enslaved women and children overboard to claim insurance.
    • “One by one, the crew picked 55 women and children and threw them...through the cabin windows into the sea and drowned.” (80:41)
  • Final toll: Of 442 enslaved people, approx. 220 die—123-133 thrown overboard, the rest from disease, and 10 by suicide.

• Legal Aftermath and the Birth of Mass Abolition

  • The ship’s owners file an insurance claim for the “loss of property.” The case, Gregson v. Gilbert, rules that the massacre is insurable loss—enslaved people are just cargo.
  • Public outrage over this ruling ignites England’s abolitionist movement: “It is the fallout from this court case that is going to inspire the birth of the organized abolitionist movement in England.” (85:19)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Robert Evans on the unique horror of Atlantic Slavery:
  “Nothing the Romans did came close to the level of sadistic cruelty that we saw in the slave ships of the Atlantic trade.” (11:26)

• On Elmina Castle’s horrifying structure:
  “Literally stratified society where you’ve just really, really made it pretty fucking obvious what you’re going for.” – James Stout (19:05)

• Regarding routine rape in the slave trade:
  “This is basically...their Christmas bonus in a way. Like this is one of the perks of the job.” – Robert (21:36)

• On mortality on slave ships:
  “We’re never gonna know precisely how many enslaved Africans were killed just as a byproduct of the slave trade. Most estimates are between 10 and 20%...In some voyages, it was like 30 or 40%.” – Robert (35:12)

• On social complicity:
  “The basic morality of slavery as a system was so unquestioned...if you were to go back with a time machine and pick random people on the street and tell them slavery should be abolished, nine out of ten listeners would reject you out of hand as a maniac.” – via Adam Hochschild (38:24)

• On the Quakers:
  “Hard to pick a group of people in western society in early modernity who were more consistently right than the Quakers.” – Robert (41:50)

• On the Zong case:
  “Stubbs comes back and is like, hey, we had to kill about 130 of these people, but we had to kill them because of an act of God, basically…That means their deaths are payable. Like your insurance company owes you for them, right?” (83:03)

  • [Robert and James emphasize the callousness by comparing insurance’s roots to slave trade risk management.]

• James, wryly, after the bleak revelations:
  “Well, not as Christmassy as I expected. Coming on the Happy Nice Guy Christmas episode.” (85:34)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 08:00–13:00 — Global contexts and brutality of Atlantic slavery
• 19:22–21:36 — Elmina Castle and routine sexual violence
• 25:27 — Punishments and resistance in the forts
• 29:09–38:24 — Slavery’s economic and social foundations in Britain
• 49:00–54:12 — The moral pivot and origins of abolitionism
• 54:12–80:41 — The Zong massacre in detail
• 83:03–85:19 — Legal aftermath and the emergence of the abolition movement

Tone and Style

The episode, true to Behind the Bastards form, balances harrowing historical narrative with gallows humor, banter, and moments of dark irony. The hosts are frank about the overwhelming cruelty of the period, their own emotional responses, and the challenge—“I always have to go for a nice walk before I do bastards, you know.” (James, 06:46)

Looking Ahead

The episode closes by promising a shift towards the actual heroes of abolition in the next installment. The detailed discussion of the Zong massacre sets the stage for the emergence of collective action that would force the British Empire, against its own interests and nearly everyone’s expectations, to significantly curtail and eventually abolish the slave trade.

For Listeners

If you want to understand not just the evil that was, but also the genuinely hopeful history of how society can sometimes change against all odds—and the cost of that achievement—this episode is essential background. The story of abolitionists will follow in Part Two.

Notable Guest Plug:
James Stout’s book, Against the State: A Story of Anarchists and Comrades at War in Spain, Myanmar and Rojava, is available for pre-order (02:29 / 86:24). Links in episode description.

End of Summary