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Slavery History Trail
1. Pier HeadThe buildings at the Pier Head on Liverpool's waterfront stand on the site of George's Dock, opened in 1771. In the dock's heyday ships trading to West Africa, North America and the West Indies would have berthed three or four deep along the quays. 2. Our Lady and St Nicholas' ChurchThis church stands on the corner of Chapel Street and the Strand, close to the city's waterfront. Known as the sailors' church, St Nicholas's has been rebuilt several times since its foundation in medieval times. In the corner of the churchyard stood a coffee house in which shackles for the slave trade were auctioned during the eighteenth century. You can learn more about the church and its history on the St Nicholas website. 3. Earle StreetEarle Street is now a small side road close to Old Hall Street in Liverpool's business district. Members of the Earle family were slave traders throughout the eighteenth century. John Earle and his two sons, Ralph and Thomas, served on the town council and all three held the office of mayor. The Earle family papers are held in the archives of Merseyside Maritime Museum. 4. Exchange FlagsExchange Flags is an open piazza, surrounded by Grade II listed buildings on three sides, and the Town Hall on the other, and located between Dale Street and Tithebarn Street. Here the merchants of Liverpool carried out their business in the open air. The most familiar feature is the Nelson monument, erected by public subscription in 1813. Local tales have it that the chained figures represent slaves, but they were in fact prisoners of war from some of Nelson's battles. Read more about the Nelson monument and its conservation on the National Conservation Centre site. 5. Town Hall
The Town Hall is located in the business district of Liverpool, on the intersection of Dale, Water and Castle Streets. It was the centre of civic and mercantile activity in the eighteenth
century . Built in 1749-54, it was reconstructed after a fire in 1795 and
lavishly decorated. The frieze around the outside, illustrating Liverpool's
trading routes, includes lions, crocodiles, elephants and African faces. 6. Water StreetWater Street runs between Dale Street and the Strand, close to Liverpool's waterfront. Many merchants had their homes, businesses and offices here. The impressive Barclays Bank was built next to the Town Hall in 1927 as the head office of Martin's Bank, which incorporated Heywood's Bank. Heywood's was founded by Arthur and Benjamin Heywood, who owned slaving vessels. Many of the country's financial institutions are a lasting legacy of the slave trade. There's more on the history of Water Street on the BBC website. 7. Goree
Goree is named after the island off Dakar, Senegal in West Africa, one of the
trading places for slaves. Local stories say that iron rings set into the walls, and into cellar walls throughout the city,
here were used to secure slaves, but in fact few Africans were brought to
Liverpool. 8. Merseyside Maritime MuseumMerseyside Maritime Museum occupies one of the warehouses of the Albert Dock, completed in 1846. The museum building is also home to the International Slavery Museum, and also the Maritime Archives and Library, which includes items related to the slave trade. 9. Graving DocksAlthough altered in the early nineteenth century, these two dry or graving docks outside the Merseyside Maritime Museum, built in 1756 and 1765-69, are the oldest surviving part of the Liverpool dock system. Ships used in the slave trade were repaired here. 10. Salthouse DockThis dock stands between the main dock road and the Albert Dock. It took its name from the salt refinery which stood nearby. It was founded in 1696 to process Cheshire salt. This was exported to Newfoundland for salting cod, which was then sent to feed slaves on the plantations of the West Indies. 11. Cunliffe StreetCunliffe Street is now a small street running between Dale Street and Tithebarn Street. This street was named after Foster Cunliffe, Mayor of Liverpool in 1716, 1729 and 1735. He and his sons, Robert and Ellis, were prominent slave traders. In 1752 they had four vessels involved in slaving. 12. Dale StreetNarrow lanes run off Dale Street from either side, giving some sense of how it would have looked at the height of the slave trade. In fact this street layout is much older, in parts dating from the medieval period. There's more on the history of Dale Street on the BBC website. 13. York StreetEstablished in 1758, Fawcett Preston made pans, kettles, pots, guns and other iron goods. They also produced sugar boiling pans and sugar cane crushing machinery for use in the Caribbean. Steam engines were made here for use in the plantations from 1813. 14. Old DockBegun in 1708 and opened in 1715, this was the first commercial enclosed wet dock in the world. Ships could load and unload regardless of the state of the tide. Many slave ships left from here. In 1826 the dock was filled in and modern buildings now stand on the site. There's brief history of Old Dock in our Trading Places minisite. 15. Paradise StreetIn the eighteenth century many lodging houses and taverns used by sailors were located in this area. Thomas Leyland, one of the most active slave traders, had an office in nearby King Street (now demolished). Thomas Leyland founded the Bank of Leyland and Bullin in 1807. Originally a dealer in food stuffs, he was one of the most active Liverpool slave merchants. Between 1782 and 1807 he was responsible for transporting nearly 3,500 Africans to Jamaica alone. His partner, Bullin, was also a slave trader. Leyland was reckoned to be one of the three wealthiest men in Liverpool and in 1826 his fortune amounted to 736,531. Leyland and Bullin's Bank was absorbed by the North and South Wales Bank in 1901 and became part of the Midland Bank in 1908. Paradise Street is now the centre of a large retail centre. 16. Park LaneMany merchants' warehouses were situated in this area. Charles Roe & Company, in nearby Sparling Street , was founded in 1767 and supplied copper and brass goods and equipment, including manillas, for trading in Africa. Many Black seamen lived in the area in the nineteenth century. More on Charles Roe & Co can be found on the Toxteth.net site. 17. Trueman StreetTrueman Street is off the east end of Dale Street, close to World Museum Liverpool. The impressive building on the corner of Dale Street and Trueman Street is regarded as the best surviving house of the Georgian period in Liverpool. Built in 1790, it was the home of John Haughton, whose distillery stood adjacent to it in Trueman Street. Spirits were important goods in the trade with Africa. 18. Tarleton StreetTarleton Street is just off Church Street in Liverpool's shopping district. The Tarletons were a vigorous slaving family in Liverpool for over three generations. Three of John Tarleton's sons were involved in the trade between 1786 and 1788 and had shares in 52 slaving voyages. The fourth son, Banastre, was an MP and an opponent of abolition. 19. Church StreetChurch Street is now Liverpool's main shopping street. It was once the site of the Liverpool Dispensary (on the corner with Church Alley), which moved here in 1782. Funded by a number of slave traders, incuding the Heywoods, it provided medical treatment for the poor of the town. The abolitionist James Currie was the first surgeon here. An illustration of the old dispensary on Church Street can be found on the Old Liverpool website. 20. AthenaeumThis gentlemen's club, library and reading room was founded in 1799 by a group which included the abolitionists William Roscoe and James Currie. It still stands on Church Alley, which runs between Church Street and School Lane in the retail area of the city centre. Visit the Athenaeum's website.
21. Bluecoat SchoolFounded in 1708 and built 1716-17, the Bluecoat was a school for orphans partly funded by Bryan Blundell, the merchant and trader. Blundell did not transport slaves from Africa, as commonly thought, but he did carry tobacco and other plantation goods produced by slaves. The school is now the Bluecoat Arts Centre (currently being refurbished). It stands on School Lane, just off Church Street in the retail area of Liverpool. The text on the plaque reads: City of Liverpool. On this site stood the charity school for poor children founded by Bryan Blundell and established by public subscription in 1709. 22. World Museum Liverpool In the eighteenth century William Brown Street was known as Shaw's Brow
and was the site of several potteries which provided wares for slaving ships. 23. Walker Art Gallery
Built in 1874-77, the Walker Art Gallery has several paintings associated with slavery or
featuring Black people. The most famous are 'The Hunted Slaves' by Richard
Ansdell, painted in 1861 and 'The Black Boy' by William Windus.
There is also Zoffany's painting of 'The Family of Sir William Younger' (you can study this painting indepth on the Portrait Detectives minisite ). To the left of the group you can see a black servant; a status symbol among rich people at the time and possibly brought back with Sir William from his plantation in the West Indies. 24. St George's HallThe hall on Lime Street was built as a law court and concert hall in 1842-56. A frieze on the south side featuring 'Britannia with Commerce and the Arts' was removed because it had become unsafe. The scene included a kneeling African slave. 25. Lime Street StationThe Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first commercial railway in the world. Attempts to build a rail link to move cotton, cloth and other goods began in the early 1820s. The shareholders included those who grew rich through slavery, like John Gladstone and John Moss. 26. LyceumThe neo-classical Lyceum, at the bottom of Bold Street, was built in 1800-02 as a gentlemen's club, and became home to Liverpool's subscription library, which had been founded in 1757. The founders included a number of Liverpool's abolitionists. It was partly established because the atmosphere in the merchants' coffee house was too rowdy, or perhaps too full of those involved in the 'African trade'. 27. Bold StreetThis street, which runs between Church Street in the north and Berry Street in the south, was originally laid out as a rope walk; a long thin area of land used in the manufacture of rope (the area is now known as 'Rope Walks'). It was laid out for residences around 1780 and named after Jonas Bold, a noted slave merchant, sugar trader and banker. In 1802 Bold became Mayor of Liverpool. 28. Jamaica StreetJamaica Street is just to the south of the city centre, off Park Lane. Jamaica was the largest British colony in the West Indies. The island was seized in 1655 and became a major source of sugar. It was the destination of many Liverpool slave ships and many Liverpool merchants had extensive business interests there; some owned estates on the island. 29. Berry StreetBerry Street, which runs along the south end of Bold Street, was originally laid out as a rope walk (it's now part of the Rope Walks area); a long thin area of land used in the manufacture of rope. Rope was vital for the rigging of sailing ships and there were over a dozen rope walks in the city. 30. Mount PleasantIn the 1790s Mount Pleasant was on the edge of town. Now it is a central part of the city, and home to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. Roscoe Memorial Gardens stand adjacent to this street, the burial site of Liverpool's most famous abolitionist, William Roscoe, (1735-1831). Learn more about William Roscoe in this feature on the Roscoe Lectures. 31. Rodney StreetRunning off Mount Pleasant towards the Anglican Cathedral is Rodney Street. Built between about 1782 and 1801, this street provided homes for many of Liverpool's elite merchants, and the buildings still reflect that wealth. It was named after Admiral Rodney who defeated the French in St Lucia on 1782 to preserve British influence in the West Indies. Rodney supported the slave trade. John Gladstone, father of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, lived on Rodney Street. He made his wealth through the sugar plantations in Demerara and Jamaica. 32. Gildart StreetGildart Street is on the eastern side of the city centre, just off London Road. Richard Gildart was a slave trader and a politician. He was listed amongst the Company of Merchants trading to Africa in 1752. At that time he owned three ships involved in the slave trade. Gildart served on the town council, was mayor on three occasions, bailiff, and MP for the town from 1734-1754. |
