City role in slave shame should be ‘highlighted’
THE shameful role slavery played in creating the Glasgow we know today should be recognised within the fabric of the city, according to a leading Scottish poet.
Kate Tough hopes her critically-acclaimed poem, People Made Glasgow, can be the catalyst for ideas about how best to confront Glasgow’s imperial sins.
A slavery museum, a memorial garden or new street names should all be considered as potential means of addressing the popular amnesia about the slave trade, says the poet.
Kate, 44, from Shawlands, said: “I love Glasgow but an important thing for us to do would be to decide how we’re going to acknowledge the contribution of slaves to the prosperity of the city. Why shouldn’t 2017 be the year we sort this out?”
During the 18th and 19th centuries, when Glasgow was ‘The Second City of the Empire,’ Glasgow merchants were enthusiastic in their embrace of the triangular trade route, by which slaves were bought to enable the production of materials such as sugar and tobacco.
Ships sailed from Port Glasgow or Greenock to the West coast of Africa, where slaves were acquired in exchange for goods, before making the twomonth crossing of the Atlantic.
Crammed below deck in appalling conditions, around one in four slaves did not survive to see their destination.
Glasgow City Council has no plans to fulfil the vision of those who want a bolder acknowledgment of Glasgow’s sins of Empire.
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “The city’s street names highlight many aspects of Glasgow’s history and that history should remain on show for all to see. Glasgow benefited greatly from the proceeds of the Atlantic slave trade and this an issue that is regularly and openly examined within our cultural estate.”