Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘Black or white... we should all understand our history’
COLONIAL slavery was abolished in 1833 when the government paid £20million – 40% of its annual budget – to 3,000 owners to compensate them for the loss of their “property”.
Those recompensed included relatives of George Orwell and Graham Greene plus a distant ancestor of former prime minister David Cameron. The enslaved received nothing. Transatlantic slavery shaped modern Britain and many feel we are yet to fully address the legacy of the horrors it caused.
“It’s important to be aware of our history and not sweep it under the carpet,” said Jean Francois Manicom, lead curator of transatlantic slavery and legacies at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool. “We need to learn the lessons of the past.
“It’s a sad story but it’s very important to face the past and to say, ‘The society I’m living in is based on a very difficult story’.
“How did a little island become one of the most important countries in the last century? It’s not only the industrial revolution, it’s coming from a story of colonialism and a story of slavery.
“They are the two big things that made this country rich, prosperous and developed.”
Liverpool was considered the European capital of the transatlantic slave trade by the 1780s, transforming it into one of the land’s most important and wealthy cities.
Bristol and London were also key ports but the legacy of slavery is visible across the country as a whole.
“The physical landscape you can see before your eyes is deeply impacted by slavery,” said Jean Francois.
“Plenty of mansions, roads and canals are based on this trade. You have a visual impact in the UK and many people don’t know that.”
“It’s not a frozen history,” he added. “It’s a story which has legacies which are still in this country.
“Windrush is the legacy of slavery – linked directly by the presence of African people in the Caribbean.”
In June 2020 the statue of Bristol slave trader Edward Colston was toppled, defaced and pushed into the city’s harbour during protests relating to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Within days the statue of Robert Milligan, who owned two sugar plantations and 526 slaves in Jamaica, was removed from outside the Museum of London Docklands.
Liverpool University agreed to rename a halls of residence named after former prime minister William Gladstone, whose father John owned 2,508 slaves in the Caribbean.
“It’s important for everyone living in Britain to know about their past,” said Jean Francois. “I’m not speaking only about the black people or those with an interest in the slavery trade – this is for everybody.
“The scale of transatlantic slavery was so big and so important, the money was so important in shaping this country that when they stopped the trade in 1807 it was impossible to stop the exploitation of somebody.
“They used the knowledge from dealing with enslaved people – workers in Manchester were working for owners of mills who were owners of plantations in the Caribbean. The ex-black enslaved and the white workers of Manchester had the same master in reality, so it’s not only the story of my ancestor, it’s the story of your ancestor too.”
The curator said educating young people was a focus for the museum, which attracted 1,000 visitors a day before the pandemic struck.
“I come from the French Caribbean. I know where my ancestors come from, I know the story of my island and my area,” he said.
“It’s important for everybody living in a society to know this in order to change it and improve it.”