The Persistence of Memory: Remembering Slavery in Liverpool
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The Persistence of Memory LIVERPOOL STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL SLAVERY, 18 The Persistence of Memory Remembering Slavery in Liverpool, ‘slaving capital of the world’ Jessica Moody The Persistence of Memory Liverpool University Press First published 2020 by Liverpool University Press 4 Cambridge Street Liverpool L69 7ZU Copyright © 2020 Jessica Moody The right of Jessica Moody to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data A British Library CIP record is available ISBN 978-1-78962-232-4 hardback ISBN 978-1-80034-828-8 paperback ISBN 978-1-78962-257-7 epdf Typeset by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library, having been made possible by the generous support of the LUP Open Access Author Fund. For Ryan Contents Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgements xi List of Abbreviations xiii Preface xv Introduction: Remembering Slavery in the ‘slaving capital of the world’ 1 1 From History to Memory: The Discursive Legacies of the Past 29 2 Black Liverpool: Living with the Legacy of the Past 65 3 Coinciding Anniversaries: Birthdays and the Abolition Act in 1907, 1957, and 2007 101 4 The Memorial Cult of William Roscoe: Remembering Abolition 129 5 The Rise of the Museums 155 6 Performing Memory: Local Slavery Memory in a Globalizing World 181 7 Sites of Memory: Bodies and the Cityscape 217 Conclusion: Untelling Difficult Pasts 257 Bibliography 269 Index 293 • vii • Illustrations List of Illustrations 1 Liverpool Pageant, Car ‘The Slave Trade.’ 1907 Commemorative Postcard 109 2 Liverpool’s 800th Birthday Coin 123 3 Liverpool’s Bicentenary Programme 126 4 Roscoe Gardens Memorial Plaque, 2003 151 5 Sankofa Bird on Slavery Remembrance Day Postcard 202 6 Goree Warehouses Engraving, 1826 copy 221 7 Nelson Memorial, Exchange Flags, Liverpool 239 8 Figure in Chains, Nelson Memorial 243 9 After C.R. Cockerell, R.A. The Sculptured Pediment of St George’s Hall, Liverpool c. 1850. Lithograph, 330 × 892 mm (image), 560 × 930 mm (sheet). William Grinsell Nicholl. Lithographed by Alfred Stevens. Printed by Hullmandel and Walton. Photo © Royal Academy of Arts, London; Prudence Cuming Associates Limited 245 10 Close-up of the figure of ‘Africa’ from After C.R. Cockerell, R.A. The Sculptured Pediment of St George’s Hall, Liverpool c. 1850. Lithograph, 330 × 892 mm (image), 560 × 930 mm (sheet). William Grinsell Nicholl. Lithographed by Alfred Stevens. Printed by Hullmandel and Walton. Photo © Royal Academy of Arts, London; Prudence Cuming Associates Limited 249 • ix • Acknowledgements Acknowledgements This book has a been a long time in the making and I owe a debt of gratitude to a great many people. I would like to acknowledge, first of all, the city of Liverpool for providing such rich inspiration and thank my grandparents, Jenny and Bert Moody, for taking an open-top bus tour of the city with me back in 2003 when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Liverpool. The surprise at hearing the pre-recorded voice-over declare that Liverpool had been ‘Number One for Slavery!’ set me on a path which has culminated in this book. I would also like to thank supportive lecturers at the University of Liverpool (Jill Rudd and Joan Taylor) for pushing me towards postgraduate study, as well as my MA supervisor, Laurajane Smith for sparking an interest in studying ‘heritage’ and encouraging me to pursue a PhD. Thanks also to staff at National Museums Liverpool, especially former colleagues and interviewees (James Hernandez and Richard Benjamin) and to all my interviewees who so graciously gave me their time, expertise, and insights (Ray Costello, ‘Scott’ and ‘Stephen’). For financial support in completing this project I would like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Royal History Society, and the Universities of York, Portsmouth, and Bristol. Special thanks are due to the Lancashire Research Centre on Migration, Diaspora and Exile (MIDEX) at the University of Central Lancashire for funding a fellowship during which the conclusion to this book was written. My thanks to everyone at the Institute for Black Atlantic Research (IBAR) who hosted me in November 2019. No work of history can be undertaken without the support and expertise of archivists and, in this regard, I would like to thank the staff at Liverpool Records Office (especially during the ‘Bootle warehouse years’ when the main library was being renovated), Liverpool local libraries, the Walker Art Gallery archives, the Athenaeum Liverpool, University of Liverpool Sydney • xi • The Persistence of Memory Jones Library, University of York, British Library at Boston Spa, Churchill College Archives Cambridge, The Bodleian Library Oxford (and former Rhodes Library), School of Oriental and African Studies Library, Black Cultural Archives, and British Library Newspaper Archive. All attempts to find the rightful permission holders of images were made for this volume. If there are any concerns, please contact the publisher (Liverpool University Press). I would like to extend special thanks to Geoff Cubitt for his role as my PhD supervisor and for his subsequent support and encouragement. Thanks to those who read drafts or otherwise supported me at the University of York including Henrice Altink, Catriona Kennedy, and Zoe Norridge, and the PhD gang at the Humanities Research Centre. For their additional encour- agement and support I would like to thank Alan Rice, Katie Donington, Richard Huzzey, John Oldfield, Steve Watson, Stephen Small, Charles Forsdick, Michael Morris, Olivette Otele, and Alix Green; my former colleagues at the University of Portsmouth, especially Brad Beaven, Jodi Burkett, and David Andress, and colleagues at the University of Bristol, especially Tim Cole, Hilary Carey, Josie McLellan, Sumita Mukherjee, and the Black Humanities Research Centre. I would like to thank my friends and family who have listened to me talk about Liverpool and slavery for over a decade now, especially my parents Pamela and Doog Moody, my brother Baz, Peter Phillips and Anne Stringfellow, Karen and Pol Fretwell, Irene Acland (and, of course, the services of ‘TNPH’ – thanks Richard!). For her hospitality on numerous trips across the Pennines to Liverpool, Katie Douglas deserves a special mention. I am also grateful for the patience and support of Alison Welsby and the team at Liverpool University Press, and for the constructive comments of the anonymous peer-reviewers. Finally, and most importantly, I would not have been able to complete this book without the support of my partner and teammate Ryan Hanley, who completes so much more besides. • xii • Abbreviations List of Abbreviations ASAPS Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society BHM Black History Month ISM International Slavery Museum LAARCA Liverpool Anti-Racist and Community Arts Association LRO Liverpool Record Office MCRC Merseyside Community Relations Council NMGM National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside NML National Museums Liverpool SRD Slavery Remembrance Day TSG Transatlantic Slavery Gallery • xiii • Preface This book went into production in the summer of an eventful 2020. The year began with major industrial action in higher education in the UK over fair pay and pensions, workloads, and against the increasing casualization of university workforces (the use of hourly paid, fixed-term and insecure teaching, research, and professional services staff) and pay inequality; especially the gender and BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) pay gaps. The BME pay gap is just one of a number of serious issues in higher education concerning race, ethnicity, and representation in the UK. In History, the picture is particularly stark – less than 1 per cent of university historians are black, and only 11 per cent of history students come from BME backgrounds. Experiences of racism and discrimination abound (see Royal Historical Society, Race, Ethnicity & Equality in UK History: A Report and Resource for Change, RHS: October 2018). The global COVID-19 pandemic which spread quickly around the world in 2020 disproportionately killed more people from BME backgrounds than white people in the UK, as reviews from the Office for National Statistics and Public Health England have shown; with people from black African backgrounds dying at more than triple the rate of white British people. The pandemic has highlighted a number of serious pre-existing divisions in British society in regards to race, poverty, housing, employment, and access to resources. From the end of May onwards, major large-scale protests in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement took place around the world in response to the killing by police of an African-American man – George Floyd – in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020. As part of these demonstrations against police brutality and racial discrimination more broadly, protesters in different countries targeted statues commemorating figures of racial oppression; leaders of the Confederacy, slave-owners and slave-traders, • xv • The Persistence of Memory imperialists and white supremacists. On 7 June 2020, BLM protesters in my hometown Bristol pulled down the statue of seventeenth-century slave- trader Edward Colston (1636–1721) and rolled it into the harbour. Not long after this several other statues were removed or identified for public review. The statue of slave-holder Robert Milligan was removed by authorities from West India Docks in London, and Oriel College, Oxford voted to remove the statue of nineteenth-century imperialist Cecil Rhodes. As many historians were keen to stress in response to this action; these statues and their histories tell us far more about the attitudes and anxieties of the times in which they were erected than the ‘histories’ they supposedly represent.