The Triangular Enslavement Trade: The Case of Liverpool, EnglandMarch 25, 2014

Dr. Mark ChristianProfessor & ChairDepartment of African & African American Studies

Lehman College City University of New York

Triangular Slave Trade

Liverpool Black Presence- 18th CenturyTransatlantic SlaveryColonial era slave sea routesAfrican SeamenAfrican StudentsAfrican CaribbeansAfrican American GIs1600s-1800s Peak Era

Liverpool & Slave Trade ProfitsBanking system & PoliticsBuilding & repair of slave shipsSlave tradingSlave produced goods - cotton, sugar etcProduction of exportable goods - pottery etcInsuring & Financing the above operations and industries.

City Architecture Reveals African Connections:

Liverpool Mayors and the Slave TradeThomas Golightly (Mayor 1772/3)At least 26 of Liverpools mayors, holding office for 35 years of the years from 1700-1820, were or had been slave-merchants or close relativeSource: Peter Fryer Staying Power, (2010: 41)

Liverpool ships transported half of the 3 million Africans carried across the Atlantic by British slavers

Nearly all the principal merchants and citizens of Liverpool, including many of the mayors, were involved. Thomas Golightly (1732-1821), who was first elected to the Town Council in 1770 and became Mayor in 1772Source:http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/europe/liverpool.aspx

Age of Slave Apologies: Contemporary UK & US ContextSlavery Apology examples:Liverpool 1999 London 2007Church of England 2006/7Rev. Simon Blessant stated:We [the Church of England] were at the heart of it (Source: BBCNEWS- Feb. 8, 2006)USA Apology/Regret States: Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia (2007)

An Apology has 3 Components1) I/We am/are sorry2) I/We admit to doing wrong3) What can I/We do to make it right?Right: Church of England apologyIt is the 3rd component that appears to be the sticky point in contemporary sense.

City of Liverpool: A Slave Trade Apology Case StudyDecember 9, 1999- official apology at Town Hall (read)Hidden History:Mirna Juarez Liberal Councillor (ex-Charles Wootton student)Parkfield Road Conversations September/October 1999LCC Minutes (Nov. 4, 1999) note would produce a report with appropriate members, the Lord Mayor and Dr. Mark ChristianLiverpool Black Organizations meet at L 8 Law Centre to discuss the issueSome Protested the Apology as: too little too late

Wealth of a City Cemented in African BloodThe slave ship captain, John Newton (1725-1807) makes reference (right) to the destruction of African peoples, and creation of African wars, that the European Slave Trade was responsible for in the sale of guns:Newton wrote the hymn Amazing GraceSource: http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2007/02/16/abolition_liverpool_slavery_story_feature.shtml

"I verily believe that the far greater part of wars, in Africa, would cease, if the Europeans would cease to tempt them, by offering goods for sale."John Newton, Former slave ship captain turned evangelist/abolitionist

Mirna Juarez Liverpool City Councilor- 1999

The City of Liverpool Slave Trade- Official Apology December 1999

The Beatles Hit- 1967 [James] Penny LaneMany of Liverpools Streets are named after those Slave MerchantsEven the famous Penny Lane has an infamous origin, named after a staunch anti-abolitionist: James Penny (? 1799)

James Penny Testimony to Parliamentary CommitteeFebruary 1788James Penny, advocating for the slave trade, told the parliamentary committee that he had invested in eleven voyages of ships carrying slaves from Africa to the West Indies. His ships were between 200-300 tons and usually carried between 500 to 600 slaves in a single voyage. Of these approximately two thirds of the slaves were male and one third female.Penny argued that abolition would ruin Liverpools economy.(Right: Liverpool Town Hall built 1749-1754; extended 1785 during height of the Slave Trade affluence)

1807: The De Jure End of the International Trafficking of Africans for SaleAlthough International slave trading was abolished in 1807, it still continued underground.Slavery was not stamped out in the British Caribbean colonies until 1834-38.Liverpool and its once legal slave merchants would continue to make money from the plantation economies in the Caribbean and Americas.Liverpool prospered up to the mid-1800s as a city. In the 20th Century the city declined after WWII

Liverpool & Contemporary RacismFrom Charles Wootton in 1919 to Anthony Walker in 2005, Liverpools Black Experience has been one of a constant battle against both structural and individual acts of racismSelected Race/Class Disturbances1919 Anti-Black Riots1948 Anti-Black Riots1981 & 1985 Anti-Police & Poverty Riots

Longevity of Institutional RacismSwann Report (1985) Education for AllSpecial reference to Liverpool Born Blacks as Social OutcastsLoosen the Shackles (1989)Regards Liverpools racism as Uniquely HorrificLawrence Report (1999) Acknowledges Institutional Racism as endemic in British Police Force and other key institutionsA Challenge to Change Equality for All in Liverpool (2000)

Anthony WalkerVictim of Racist Murder 2005

2000s Equality Evades Liverpool Born Blacks and othersA Challenge to Change Equality for All in Liverpool (2000)Between May 1999 and January 2000 seven councillors and seven residents met as an equal opportunities review panel to gauge.

Key findings:Liverpool City Councils (LCC) practices are discriminatoryLCC continues to exclude many people in its workforceIndividuals and communities do not receive a fair/equal service.LCC has appalling record on equal opps., with its image, its ethos and its cultureLCCs day-to-day practices do not match its equal opps. policies

Charles Wootton College1974-2000 (R.I.P.) (below photo taken September 2007)

Charles Wootton College Site:A Symbol of Regeneration and Reneging on Promise

Selected Toxteth StatisticsHigh Unemployment Low EducationHigh DeprivationLow Housing ExpectationHigh on Drug AbuseLow on Book UseHigh with GentrificationLow on Egalitarianism High Percentage of Liverpool Born Blacks without workLow Percentage of anyone who cares

In ConclusionAs we consider the City of Liverpool and its legacy in the Slave Trade, and its Slave Apology from 1999 as a sincere statementWe must also consider the 3rd component of an apology: What can I/We do to make things right?Without statistical measurement of Black communities making tangible progress the Slave Trade Apology from 1999 is nothing more than a symbolic gestureIt is no more than a hollow statement presentlyMore needed to be done to eradicate structural inequality and racism in Liverpool that goes beyond rhetoric What is required to end the past inequities is reparations to British Black communities that suffer social exclusion

Possible Reparation Action PlanTen-Point Slavery Legacy Plan for Liverpool Born Blacks:Supported by the Liverpool City Council

Education scholarships from the three major universitiesHousing council tax deduction Employment internships in local politics, media, and banks/business sector (Barclays Bank)Christian scholarships in memory of enslaved AfricansPolice/Law training scholarshipsApprenticeships in construction tradesAffordable housing in prime city centre regionChild care voucher system Retirement home Liverpool Institute for African Heritage: Social, Economic & Cultural Research (funded by the Liverpool City Council)

Eligibility:Having been born and raised in Liverpool up to the age of 18 years, and to have had at least one parent/grandparent from any of the African heritage cultural groups.

Jesse Jackson in LiverpoolAugust 27- 2007

In My Liverpool HomePhotos: Some of my family fromLiverpool, I am bottom left, with 3 of my brothers.Thank you Bermuda!

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