LIVERPOOL: THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF

SLAVERY

During our trip to England, we spent a day in Liverpool where we visited the national
museum of slavery. It was very instructive about the history and the role of Liverpool
and his port in the slave trade.
I) History of the museum
The museum opened in August 2007 and in less than 10 years, it had welcomed
almost 4 million visitors. It is the only museum of its kind to look at aspects of
historical and contemporary slavery as well as being an international hub for
resources on human rights issues. It was created by the Dr. David Fleming, the
director of the museum, to promote the understanding of transatlantic slavery and it is
enduring impact in Africa, the Caribbean, the USA, South Africa and Western
Europe. It opened the day of the annual Slavery Remembrance Day: the 23 rd of
August. The year 2007 was also the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave
trade. It is located in Liverpool’s Albert Dock at the center of a World Heritage site
and only yards away from the dry docks where 18th century slave trading ships were
repaired and fitted out.
II) Stories inside the museum :
The museum is divided in three galleries, each explains a part of the story of the
slave trade:

 Life in West Africa; in this gallery, we would explore the story and culture of
Africa's population through masks, figures and instruments, dating from
before and the start of the slave trade. This abled us to understand better
Africa, which is the birthplace of human culture and civilisation, and played a
capital role in the slave trade, as Africans were raided and enslaved by
Europeans. The decoration of this branch of the museum is a reproduction of
what we think were the houses and objects of the Africans living during the
period of the slave trade.
Gelede mask (used for important ceremonial occasions to perform a dance)

 Enslavement and the Middle Passage; this gallery explains the horror of
how the Africans were enslaved, shipped to the Americas in terrible
conditions (a long journey of six to eight weeks trough the Atlantic in too
crowded hold of the boat, starved and treated like animals by the European
crew of the ship) to be sold to rich men, who would then force them to work
on plantations (such as sugar for example). We would understand how their
life conditions were terrible (hard work all day, starved, beaten up, leg cut if
 they tried to escape…), but also get to see sections of the economics of
slavery. There is a very interesting audio visual display that would show us
the Middle Passage, as one of the slaves. The images were very hard and
realistic, though it was necessary to have a true image, idea of how terrible
the slave trade was. There was also paintings and other art objects from
there slave trade and the Middle Passage.

« A Liverpool Slave ship », by William Jackson, 1780

 Legacy; this last gallery presents us the continuing fight for freedom and
equality in the countries affected by the slave trade. This shows us the ever
lasting impact of the slave trade in the countries implicated in it: racism and
discrimination towards Black people. Movements for equality in rights
between Black and White people of the XXth century are presented to us (the
Black Panther Party, who fought for equality in rights in the USA for
instance), and important black figures in this quest of justice are
commemorated on the Black Achievers Wall (Martin Luther King, Muhammad
Ali, Kelly Holmes...), in the result of four centuries of revolt and revolution.
There is also a music desk, where you can listen to lots of different type of
music, from traditional African music to jazz, blues, rap…

Photo of Muhammad Ali, on the Black Achievers Wall

What happened during these centuries of slave trade must stay part of History, and
be told through generations, so that we never forget the horror of what happened.
Slavery still exists in our XXIth century, though it has changed of nature: it is, for what
we know, mostly located in the Middle East and is hidden, which makes it harder to
break the chains of the poor people who try to flee the con flicts in their countries but
end up being imprisoned by organised groups, sold to another country. There is still
much to do to fight the social injustices between Black and White, but it is going to
get better with the effort of everybody.

Tom CHOURREAU and Théo CHATENET