A lesson from history

Sunday, 12 July 2009 14:05

Liverpool was one of the ports heavily involved in the Slave trade. Many of the ship owners and merchants became very rich as a result.

The Slavery Museum in Liverpool is the first of its kind in the world. It aims to promote the understanding of the transatlantic slave trade and its impact on the countries involved.

The museum on the right here, behind Salthouse Dock

It is actually sited at Albert Dock and is a very modern museum. Entrance is free and after the Slavery Museum we also visited the Maritime Museum which is in the same building.

To begin with we thought that we would not "enjoy" it as the layout is very busy with videos running at lots of the exhibits but as we progressed around the museum it began to "get to us".

The secret is to stop, watch the videos and then take time to look at the various exhibits as you reach them. There are many stories to be told by relatives of slaves, those with very real memories of being children of slaves and some very emotive things to view.

It was not a place to take photos but I took a few! The museum is laid out in galleries and we started in the West African one. I recognised some of the carvings and cloth from the items my sister had brought back from her time in Nigeria before it became Biafra.

The gallery highlighted the rich culture and intelligence of the West Africans in contrast to what must have been the European slave traders attitudes to the people they enslaved.

West African carving and cloth

The Enslavement and Middle Passage gallery was harrowing and really brought home the cruelty of the slave trade with photos and graphic videos. The suffering ion the voyage across the Atlantic and the oppression on the plantations is the major theme.

The third gallery brought everything up to date and deals with the legacy of slavery and the continuing fight for equality. The legacy of discrimination and racism is with us still despite the years that have passed.

The Freedom Sculpture is a contemporary message

This sculpture was created out of junk by Haitians and represents their continuing fight for equal rights. It was commissioned to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolishment of slavery, in 2007.

One of the exhibits is "Shoot Nations", an exhibition of photos by young people from all over the world. The theme is our changing environment due to global warming and intensive farming.

This summed it all up for me
(The title is "Stop using your cars!")

We left the Slavery Museum with slightly sombre thoughts. Part of me wonders if we have progressed at all when you consider what is still happening in many parts of the world. We still fight the legacy in this country and all the implications of out past "Empire Building".

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