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The Memory of Slavery in Liverpool in Public Discourse from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day

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The Memory of Slavery in Liverpool in Public Discourse from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day The Memory of Slavery in Liverpool in Public Discourse from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day Jessica Moody PhD University of York Department of History April 2014 Abstract This thesis maps the public, collective memory of slavery in Liverpool from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day. Using a discourse-analytic approach, the study draws on a wide range of ‘source genres’ to interrogate processes of collective memory across written histories, guidebooks, commemorative occasions and anniversaries, newspapers, internet forums, black history organisations and events, tours, museums, galleries and the built environment. By drawing on a range of material across a longue durée, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how this former ‘slaving capital of the world’ has remembered its exceptional involvement in transatlantic slavery across a two hundred year period. This thesis demonstrates how Liverpool’s memory of slavery has evolved through a chronological mapping (Chapter Two) which places memory in local, national and global context(s). The mapping of memory across source areas is reflected within the structure of the thesis, beginning with ‘Mapping the Discursive Terrain’ (Part One), which demonstrates the influence and intertextuality of identity narratives, anecdotes, metaphors and debates over time and genre; ‘Moments of Memory’ (Part Two), where public commemorative occasions, anniversaries and moments of ‘remembrance’ accentuate issues of ‘performing’ identity and the negotiation of a dissonant past; and ‘Sites of Memory’ (Part Three), where debate and discourse around particular places in Liverpool’s contested urban terrain have forged multiple lieux de memoire (sites of memory) through ‘myths’ of slave bodies and contestations over race and representation. Through its approach, structure and methods of analysis, this thesis argues that Liverpool’s memory of slavery has been complicated by varying uses of the past alongside contemporary circumstance and context. However, and as the long durée approach has demonstrated, ongoing engagements with this history continue to impact and influence subsequent commemorations, creating mnemonic legacies across time. Additionally, the memory of slavery in Liverpool has been further complicated by the ongoing memory of context; the place of other significant moments in the city’s social, economic, political, and, especially racial history. The discourse-analytic approach, moreover, demonstrates memory’s active and interactive dynamics, which incorporate broader societal discourses, and reveal the social processes of collective memory. 2 Contents Abstract.............................................................................................................................. 2 Contents ............................................................................................................................. 3 Illustrations ........................................................................................................................ 7 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 9 Author’s Declaration ........................................................................................................ 11 Chapter One: Introduction............................................................................................... 12 Memory ................................................................................................................................... 13 Memory and Discourse ........................................................................................................... 18 The Debate is the Memorial ................................................................................................ 25 Source Genres ......................................................................................................................... 26 The Longue Durée ................................................................................................................... 28 Slavery and Memory ............................................................................................................... 30 Liverpool’s Memory of Slavery ................................................................................................ 34 Argument, Thesis Structure and Liverpool Exceptionalism ..................................................... 36 Chapter Two: History and Memory Across a Longue Durée ............................................ 40 The Historic Baseline: Liverpool and Transatlantic Slavery ..................................................... 40 Liverpool and Transatlantic Slavery ........................................................................................ 40 Liverpool Exceptionalism ..................................................................................................... 42 The Impact and Involvement of Liverpool People ............................................................... 44 The Nineteenth Century: From History to Memory ................................................................. 46 Liverpool and America: Slavery, Cotton and the Confederacy ............................................ 52 The Later Nineteenth Century: Slavery, Anti-Slavery, and Social Commentaries ............... 60 Liverpool Black History and the ‘Liverpool-Born Black’ Experience ........................................ 69 ‘Liverpool-Born Black’: Identity and its Contentions ........................................................... 71 The Twentieth Century ............................................................................................................ 73 3 Decolonisation and Decline ................................................................................................. 73 Racism, Riot, and Resistance ............................................................................................... 74 The Rise of Museums and Memory in an Age of Globalization ............................................... 87 Part One: Mapping the Discursive Terrain – Narrative, Identity, Debate .......................................................................................................................... 94 Introduction to Part One .................................................................................................. 95 Chapter Three: Narratives of Memory ............................................................................ 97 Foundation Stories: Rags to Riches ...................................................................................... 99 Overcoming Abolition ........................................................................................................ 102 Narrative and Identity ........................................................................................................... 106 Scouse Boasting, Enterprising Spirits and Competitive Tones ........................................... 107 ‘The Glory and the Shame’................................................................................................. 111 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 114 Chapter Four: Maritime Mercantile City ....................................................................... 115 A Museum of the Sea: Representing Maritime Identity .................................................... 119 Maritimizing Slavery in a Port City: Concluding Thoughts ................................................. 125 Chapter Five: Using Anecdote and Metaphor – George Frederick Cooke ...................... 128 Chapter Six: Debates of Memory ................................................................................... 135 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 135 1939: History Debates ........................................................................................................... 135 1999: Memory Debates ......................................................................................................... 143 A Memorial Plaque ............................................................................................................ 144 Whose Apology? ................................................................................................................ 147 Using Slavery in Debate ......................................................................................................... 160 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 169 Conclusion to Part One ................................................................................................... 170 4 Part Two: Moments of Memory- Birthdays, Anniversaries and Calendric Reoccurence ......................................................................................... 171 Introduction to Part Two ................................................................................................ 172 Chapter Seven: King John and the Abolition Act in 1907 and 1957 ............................... 174 Introduction........................................................................................................................... 174 1907: Performing Civic Patriotism .......................................................................................
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