Abolition of Slavery Bicentenary
Liverpool Remembers Slavery
Commemorative events plus new International Slavery Museum
1 "They will remember that we were sold but they won’t remember that we were strong. They will remember that we were bought, but not that we were brave." William Prescott, former slave 1937
2 Liverpool will mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade with a series of events, and the opening of the International Slavery Museum in August. Liverpool, central to the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century, is a fitting location in which to commemorate the anniversary of this important landmark.
3 The galleries of the museum will open in Liverpool on 23 August, Slavery Remembrance Day 2007, a day that commemorates an uprising of enslaved Africans on the island of St Domingo (modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in 1791**. Designated by UNESCO, the date was chosen as a reminder that enslaved Africans were the main agents of their own liberation.
4 To accompany the opening of the International Slavery Museum, there is a programme of events and activities planned in Liverpool in 2007. These range from a series of debates to a schools twinning programme.
Background – International Slavery Museum
5 The galleries at the International Slavery Museum will feature new dynamic and thought-provoking displays about the story of the transatlantic slave trade. Crucially, it will include new displays about the legacy of transatlantic slavery and will address issues such as freedom, identity, human rights, reparations, racial discrimination and cultural change. The museum will also seek to address ignorance and misunderstanding by looking at the deep and permanent impact of slavery and the slave trade on Africa, South America, the USA, the Caribbean and Western Europe.
6 A second phase of the project, due to open in 2010, will include the development of a new visitor-focused education centre with an events programme of performances, public lectures and debates using the newly-acquired Dock Traffic Office. A research institute based in the museum is being developed in partnership with the University of Liverpool.
7 The opening of the International Slavery Museum in August has received support at the highest level from both the UK and US Government. On a recent trip to the Merseyside Maritime Museum US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, described it as an ‘extraordinary museum’, adding ‘your efforts help us both to remember and to overcome our past’. The project has received support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (the HLF) with a grant of £1.65m and the DCMS*, and the UK’s Culture Minister David Lammy is also an advocate of the new museum.
**This established Haiti as the first free, black republic in modern history. This was the most significant revolt in the history of African enslavement.The effectiveness of violence and force in controlling the island had a lasting effect also on the years following this uprising.
*The DCMS is the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for government policy on entertainment, architecture, design, arts, broadcasting etc.