Liverpool, a port city in north-west England, was involved in the transatlantic slave trade. The trade developed in the eighteenth century, as Liverpool slave traders were able to supply fabric from Manchester to the Caribbean islands at very competitive prices. [1]
On 1 December 1699 the successful tobacco and sugar merchant William Clayton, owner of the ship "Liverpool Merchant" sent his ship to Africa, where the captain William Webster bought a number of enslaved Africans, 220 were sold in Barbados. [2] This is thought to be first known ship to sail from Liverpool to transport slaves to the new world. [3] Another Liverpool vessel, the "Blessing", set sail in 1700. [4] Over the next 30 years Liverpool grew rapidly. The growth in shipping out of Liverpool began to increase slowly over the next 30–40 years with ties to the American colonies firmly established by 1700, merchants were transporting sugar and tobacco from the colonies. Liverpool was transformed from "not much more than a fishing village" due to an extensive rise in the manufacturing of textiles, iron, and firearms and gunpowder. [5] In the years of growth Liverpool goods were being exported from the Liverpool port with first commercial wet dock being built in 1715, and by 1730 there were 15 Liverpool slave ships headed toward Africa where the goods manufactured in Liverpool were exchanged for slaves.
From the mid 1740s Liverpool was the largest slave trading port in Britain, overtaking Bristol. By 1750 Liverpool was the pre-eminent slave trading port in Great Britain. Thereafter Liverpool's control of the industry continued to grow. [6] In the period between 1793 and 1807, when the slave trade was abolished, Liverpool accounted for 84.7% of all slave voyages, with London accounting for 12% and Bristol 3.3%. [7]
After 1780, the Liverpool slave trade reached its height, there was no shortage of docking facilities at the Port of Liverpool. The local government, the Liverpool Corporation, was unusual for its time because of its financial strength and it invested or £1 million in 6 new docks during the 18th century. Liverpool's docks were also used for ship building, they built 26 per cent of the total UK shipping involved in the slave trade, a total of 2,120 ships between 1701 and 1810. In comparison, the next two biggest slave ports, London and Bristol, combined, built less than half of the slave ships built in Liverpool. [8]
Liverpool's growth as a slave trade port was caused by locational advantages, at time of war, Bristol and London ships would have to sail closer mainland Europe before making a crossing to North America and the West Indies, in contrast Liverpool ships could sail North of Ireland after leaving port. A second advantage was Liverpool's close association with the nearby Isle of Man. Until 1765 the island had tax free status, allowing Dutch East Indiamen vessels to warehouse goods that could then be picked up by Liverpool ships for onward travel into the Atlantic ocean without paying landing fees to the UK government. A third reason for Liverpool's ascendency in the slave trade was the cities close proximity to the industrialising North of England. Liverpool slave traders could readily source goods to be traded for enslaved people, the African slave traders in particular favoured trading in cotton goods, an industry that Lancashire became productive with. [9]
Liverpool's slave traders bought captives across the whole of West Africa, however they specialised in the Bight of Biafra and West Central Africa. From 1740 to 1810 they took 427,000 people from the Bight of Biafra and 197,000 from West Central Africa. [10]
Liverpool traders maintained a close relationship with African trading chiefs, and developed a network of African contacts. [11] Liverpool also specialised in their delivery areas, they sold 391,000 enslaved people to Jamaica alone between 1741 and 1810. and in the same period 85,000 enslaved people to Barbados. They were dominant in most slave markets except Chesapeake where Bristol remained the biggest importer. [12]
The African Company Act 1750 set up the replacement of the Royal African Company with the African Company of Merchants. This act specified that the slave trade should be "free and open to all his Majesty's subjects". However it further stipulated that "all his Majesty's subjects, who shall trade to or from any of the ports or places of Africa, between Cape Blanco, and the Cape of Good Hope, shall for ever hereafter be a body corporate and politick, in name, and in deed, by the name of The Company of Merchants trading to Africa". The act then created an organisational outline for the African Company of Merchants based around the localities of London, Bristol and Liverpool. This stipulated how all merchants wishing to join should pay 40 shillings to an identified person in their city, with provision for the members of each city to elect three committee members to run the corporation. The town clerk of Liverpool was given responsibility in that city. [13] On 24 June 1752, 101 merchants formally joined the company. [14]
Many street names in Liverpool are named after slave traders. These include Bold Street, Earle Road, Tarlton Street, Cunliffe Street. While Penny Lane, immortalised in the song "Penny Lane" by the Beatles, has often been linked with slave ship owner James Penny [15] [16] an investigation by the International Slavery Museum found “no historical evidence” to support a connection. [17]
The International Slavery Museum is based at Liverpool docks above the Merseyside Maritime Museum. The museum was founded on August 23, 2007, the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. [18]
Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset trade imbalances between different regions.
The Slave Coast is a historical region along the Atlantic coast of West Africa, encompassing parts of modern-day Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. It is located along the Bight of Biafra and the Bight of Benin that is located between the Volta River and the Lagos Lagoon.
Bristol, a port city in the South West of England, on the banks of the River Avon, has been an important location for maritime trade for centuries.
Kingsmill was a French vessel launched in 1793 under a different name, captured in 1798, and sold to British owners who renamed her. She then became a slave ship, making three voyages from Africa to the West Indies in the triangular trade in enslaved people. A French privateer captured her in 1804, but she returned to her owners within the year. In 1807, after the end of British participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Kingsmill became a West Indiaman. In 1814 she became the first ship to trade with India under a license from the British East India Company (EIC) after the EIC lost its monopoly on British trade with India. She was badly damaged in 1821 and subsequently disappears from the registers.
Isaac Hobhouse was an English slave trader, merchant, and member of the Society of Merchant Venturers. Based in Bristol, he was at the centre of money, trade, and credit and acquired much of his fortune through the trade and exploitation of African slaves in the 18th century.
Abraham Hooke was a wealthy slave merchant from Bristol who participated in the Transatlantic Slave Trade from 1703 to 1736.
Iris was launched at Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. In all she made eight voyages (1783-1800) transporting captives from West Africa to the Caribbean. She also made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) to Bengal and back (1795-1796). She was condemned in Jamaica in December 1800 as unseaworthy.
George Case (1747–1836) was a British slave trader who was responsible for at least 109 slave voyages. Case was the co-owner of the slave ship Zong, whose crew perpetrated the Zong massacre. After the massacre, the ship owners went to court in an attempt to secure an insurance payout of £30 for each enslaved person murdered. A public outcry ensued and strengthened the abolition movement in the United Kingdom. In 1781, he became Mayor of Liverpool. After he died, the wealth generated by his slavery was bequeathed to the Case Fund by his grandson.
William Davenport was a British slave trader who was, by the number of ships disembarked, the single most prolific slave trader from the Port of Liverpool. He took part in 163 slaving voyages and his slave ships carried almost 40,000 enslaved Africans.
Peter Baker (1731–1796) was a privateer, shipbuilder, Lord Mayor of Liverpool, and notable English slave trader. He formed the Liverpool shipbuilding company Baker and Dawson with his son-in-law John Dawson. Baker was a figure of political importance in Liverpool history at a time when Liverpool was the foremost slave trading hub of the UK. Baker was part of the Corporation of Liverpool, one of the UK's largest slave trading enterprises, at a time when the corporation was opposing the first meaningful actions taken by the UK House of Lords to abolish slavery. Baker and Dawson were most active between 1783-1792 as two of the largest slave trading figures in the Corporation of Liverpool, enslaving many thousands of people. In 1795, Baker became Lord Mayor of Liverpool, before passing away the next year.
William Gregson was a British slave trader. He was responsible for at least 152 slave voyages, and his slave ships are recorded as having carried 58,201 Africans, of whom 9,148 died. Gregson was the co-owner of a ship called the Zong, whose crew perpetrated the Zong massacre.
Francis Ingram (1739–1815) was an English slave trader and privateer.
William Earle (1721–1788) was an English slave trader. In a career lasting 40 years he was responsible for at least 117 slave voyages and by the number of slave voyages he was the sixth most active slave trader in the period 1740–1790 from the Port of Liverpool.
Thomas Earle (1754–1822) was an English slave trader. He was responsible for at least 73 slave voyages and alongside his brother he transported over 19,000 enslaved people. Of these 3,000 died on board his ships. One of his ships, Annabella, was seized by the British Crown for slave trading with the enemy. He was Mayor of Liverpool in 1787.
William James (1735–1798) was an English slave trader, plantation owner and slave owner.
John Knight (1708–1774) was an English slave trader. He was responsible for at least 114 slave voyages in the period 1750–1775 and he transported over 26,000 Africans to the Americas. Knight traded enslaved Africans with the American politician and slave owner Henry Laurens.
Samuel Shaw was an English slave trader. He was responsible for at least 119 slave voyages between 1750 and 1778.
Felix Doran (1708–1776) was an Irish slave trader. He was responsible for at least 69 slave voyages. Doran moved to Liverpool in the 1740s and operated out of the Port of Liverpool. His first slave-ship was called Lively and his final one was called Essex.
William Whaley was an English slave trader. He was involved in at least 22 slave voyages from the Port of Liverpool, and was one of the biggest slave traders in British America. He employed two of the biggest slave traders, William Davenport and William Earle, before they became slave traders.
Edward Parr was an English slave trader, apothecary and merchant of Liverpool. He was involved in 51 slave voyages, operating out of the Port of Liverpool between 1750 and 1768. Parr owned a slave ship called Briton, whose captain employed an African pirate called Captain Lemma Lemma to capture and enslave people with his war canoes. Parr was a member of the African Company of Merchants.