2007 is the 200th anniversary of Britain abolishing the slave trade. This transatlantic horror started in 1501 and continued for almost 380 years. By 1780, Liverpool was the European capital of the trade. Ships from the city transported approximately 1.5 million people across the Atlantic and into slavery in the Americas. To mark the anniversary, a new museum has opened in Liverpool that explores the history of the transatlantic slave trade. The first thing you see when you enter this free museum on the third floor of the Maritime Museum building in the Albert Dock is the sculpture entitled Freedom! commissioned for the opening of the museum from a group of artists in Port au Prince, Haiti. Next, life in an Igbo community is detailed with great examples of headdresses, textiles, drums, and masks. Europeans believed that the achievements of their culture were of paramount importance and because African culture was unfamiliar it was denounced as barbaric. A particular example is the way the San foragers in South Africa were overrun by the Dutch East India Company. The slave industry was a triangular trade between the continents. Products of interest were taken from Europe to West Africa. These products were unloaded and replaced by slaves who were taken to the New World. Exotic tropical goods bought with proceeds from the slave trade then replaced the slaves on the return trip to Europe. The movement of slaves across the Atlantic was called ‘The Middle Passage’ and there is a graphic reconstruction of the conditions that slaves, shackled to the deck, had to put up with, especially as most of them suffered from sea sickness. Anyone who fell seriously ill during a voyage was thrown overboard. Between 1501 and 1600 270,000 slaves were exported, with most of the ships from Spain and Portugal. Between 1601 and 1700 1.25 million slaves were moved, with Denmark and Holland joining in. Britain and France were added to the trade between 1701 and 1807, resulting in 6.1 million people being sold into slavery. The final 60 years of the trade after Britain abolished slavery saw 3.5 million used as human ballast by ships mainly from Spain, Portugal, and France. From the windows of the museum you can see the area in St George’s dock, where the Liver Building now stands, where the ships were loaded with their West African cargo. Liverpool became the European capital of the slave trade because the port was easy to reach from other parts of England via the rivers and the newly opened canals. Liverpool merchants were sharp and successful in undercutting rivals’ costs, reducing turnaround time, and increasing the flexibility of their operations. Liverpool merchants knew what goods the West African traders wanted. The prices of slaves are also documented. From a sale in 1852 in Savannah, Georgia. $1275 was being asked for Lunesta a 21-year old Rice Planter. Minda, 27, a Cotton Prime Woman was being sold for $1200, $100 more than the price being asked for Adam, 28, a Cotton Prime Young Man. $900 was being sought for a 16-year old called Videt, who was a nurse and did housework. Flementina, 39, a good cook with a stiff knee would cost $400 and Bessie, 69, who was infirm but sewed was going for a knock-down $250. Many slaves worked on plantations, which had punishment yards for disobedient workers, where the wearing of muzzles and shackles was common. More serious offenders had their ears chopped off or their noses slit. By the 1780s, many plantations were making a 10% profit per year, enough to allow their owners to build houses in London and leave the plantation in the hands of a manager. The year after Britain abolished slavery, the Royal Navy established a West Africa Squadron to suppress the slave trade, which met with little success. In the New World, Europeans were outnumbered 10 to 1 by slaves. Slave rebellions were quite common as were escapes, where runaway slaves were given the name Maroons, derived from the Spanish word cimarron meaning wild. Between 1825 and 1860 100,000 slaves escaped in the USA using trails called The Underground Railroad. Liverpool’s familiar names can also have connections with slavery that you might not know about. It’s thought that Penny Lane was named after one James Penny who made 11 voyages as a captain on the slave boats. He was made a freeman of the borough of Liverpool after speaking in favour of slavery at the Parliamentary Enquiry which laid the foundations for abolishing the trade. A lot of Liverpool’s most elaborate houses were built by merchants who made at least some of their wealth from the slave trade. The final sections of the museum chronicle the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and The Black Power movement, with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X featuring prominently. The museum documents the effect slavery had on Black Music and the global inequalities in trade which sees the former slave colonies discriminated against to this day. The exhibits conclude with an investigation into what it means to be black in Britain and some poignant stories from Liverpool’s black community. What’s good about this museum is the span of the exhibits. Not only does the museum cover the transatlantic slave trade and its after effects in great detail, it also starts with an appreciation of life in West Africa before slavery and then finishes with an overview of racism and discrimination in the modern world, which makes you aware how slavery fundamentally influenced the world we live in today. The only addition I would make would be to include a section that shows slavery still exists to this day in certain parts of the world, though not across the Atlantic. Perhaps this will be addressed when the museum expands its operations in 2010.
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