Revealing Histories: Remembering Slavery

The evidence suggests that Greater Manchester wouldn't be the way it is today without the slave trade.

• What people think so far

• l`m in total agreement with the statement, britain perpetuate slavery in human this had detrimental effects that are being felt today,so they should apologise for having started the whole thing.
  

  gail mandaza

• Apologise for what? when they are still practising slavery mentally and still ripping oil and minerals in Africa and asia, so I see no need of them being hypocrite as there generations where, so they are, and will remain; in living in the sweats of africans and asians.
  
  

  Isata

• I think the slave trade had an impact on all parts of Britain - in ways that haven't even been fully explored yet. Just the fact that our diet and fashions changed so much at that time - epsecially the use of sugar in everything we eat!
  But the wealth generated was phenomenal and had a huge benefit on Industrial Britain. The campaigns to abolish slavery also fed into the development of wider social reform and led to the improvement of conditions for factory workers and movements like the co-op.

  Kathy

• The best way to apologise is to act to eradicate 21st century slavery... all goods should be Fair Trade.
  
  

  Anonymous

• I think it is important to study and understand the past but it is a nonsense to try and impose 21st century values on morals and events that happened centuries ago. All the slaves and slave owners are long dead and buried and so cannot take part in any discussion or apology. We should celebrate the fact that slavery was abolished, not get bogged down in apologising for events that no living person had any control over nor took part in. Otherwise we would end up with the Danes aplogising for the Viking raids, the French apologising for the Norman invasion, the Germaic trbes apologising for the sack of Rome, etc, etc, etc.
  
  

• 3

  5

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• i thin k hitler was rig..... *proceed to get canceled

  ben dover

• Look at the disgusting comments on tis link.

  Joe Public

• Lets not forget the cotton trade only benefited a few wealthy people. In Britain it was not until 1918 that women and men without property got to vote for the government.
  
  From Wiki:
  In England and Scotland in 1788, two-thirds of the workers in 143 water-powered cotton mills were described as children. Sir Robert Peel, a mill owner turned reformer, promoted the 1802 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act, which was intended to prevent pauper children from working more than 12 hours a day in mills. Children had started in the mills at around the age of four, working as mule scavengers under the working machinery until they were eight, they progressed to working as little piecers which they did until they were 15. During this time they worked 14 to 16 hours a day, being beaten if they fell asleep.

  Jules

• gf
  
  

• racism bad

  Racism is bad gang

• racism bad

  Racism is bad gang

• 50,000,000

• Maybe you should be glad White people abolished slavery. Blacks, Middle Easterners and Chinese still practice it today. I think the question should be where would the world be if whites didnt abolish slavery.

  David Houssain

• Maybe you should be glad White people abolished slavery. Blacks, Middle Easterners and Chinese still practice it today. I think the question should be where would the world be if whites didnt abolish slavery.

  David Houssain

• Maybe you should be glad White people abolished slavery. Blacks, Middle Easterners and Chinese still practice it today. I think the question should be where would the world be if whites didnt abolish slavery.

  David Houssain

• I think you need to go back about 6000 years right? I mean until WHITE people abolished the trade of slaves it was a fairly common occurrence in the West. Today in Africa, Africans enslave and yes eat pygmies, Arabs regularly castrate and enslave blacks. I mean didnt the Barbary pirates take white slaves. Maybe you should ask how blacks ,Middle Easterners and Chinese benefit from slavery today. This projects of your is mercifully free the ravages of intelligence. You fools. Stop this immediately, you are a joke and you are above things...evil. You sicken me. GTFOH you racist pieces of ....

  David Houssain

• Where is the Declaration of Human Rights ‘poster’ that was on display. In the town hall??

  David H. Hundley

• They all benefited from our ancestors free and forced labor. Now they just call it Life in prison which is another form of slavery for us! They need to pay us for our ancestors blood sweat and tears and death by murder at the hands of the white man. Even now in this pandemic we should be compensated everyone in the country should eat .

  Felcia

• They all benefited from our ancestors free and forced labor. Now they just call it Life in prison which is another form of slavery for us! They need to pay us for our ancestors blood sweat and tears and death by murder at the hands of the white man. Even now in this pandemic we should be compensated everyone in the country should eat .

  Felcia

• Watch the Movie "The girl in the Cafe" Year; 2005. Not Much has changed besides the Rich getting mega Wealthy, and the poor does not matter.

  Jaguar

• Bad things were done in our history on all side, stop crying

• Please dig out the bust of Robeson and make a display about his support for the white working class in Britain. He is a legend. I used to walk past this bust as a little girl, but I never knew who it was, or what he had done, until much more recently. This was despite having a record of his at home that we listened to all the time!

  Barbara Doye

• Manchester and the North West would have still thrived, there was the need to work and people that were able did so and the communities pulled together.

  Babs

• Manchester and the North West would have still thrived, there was the need to work and people that were able did so and the communities pulled together.

  Babs

• The world would be very different if slavery never existed.

  Dave M

• cos

  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

• The current generations may seek to learn and understand history --- without blaming the values and practices of the bygone --- and strive to improve the quality of life for all. The amount of apology or blame any generation should have to make or take: zero.

  Yaseen Puthan Veetil

• The current generations may seek to learn and understand history --- without blaming the values and practices of the bygone --- and strive to improve the quality of life for all. The amount of apology or blame any generation should have to make or take: zero.

  Yaseen Puthan Veetil

• No way would Manchester be this way. What do u guys actually think huh? Africans and Asians worked their a** off. British were spoiled and I know many people who think that the British are gonna meet their country’s demise sooner or later.

  I ain’t telling u

• No way would Manchester be this way. What do u guys actually think huh? Africans and Asians worked their a** off. British were spoiled and I know many people who think that the British are gonna meet their country’s demise sooner or later.

  I ain’t telling u

• too much

  hmmm

• What’s so new to me and so fascinating is how the slave trade was one of the first large scale permitted by the British crown, was based on the most complete exploitation possible of our fellow humans and provided the “capital” (the head, the main part) for the large scale private enterprises that would be called the capitalist system. I wonder if the feature of extreme exploitation was equally important in shaping the new economic system.

  Richard Clark

• hjry8y kjt7m

  raven

• hhahahahahahahahahaqhahahahahahahahah

  che

• i think manchester would still have thrived without the the slave trade

  louis cooper

• i think manchester would still have thrived without the the slave trade

  louis cooper

• hi

  hi

• Assuming that the evidence you speak is available then I have no reason not to believe the statement.

  Tim Saxon

• Nothing

• d

• get lost. world - slavery = better place

• hate slavery. people were force to work hard until their back broke. learning about it in school.

• it benefited from slavery and trade

  maya

• they earned 69 cents wich do you know what that mean, they didnt have enough money for chicken nuggets WHOOOOOOOOOOO

  ryan McGouchfag

• i dont know i just wanted to say sometihng

  pationts

• me and ur mum is a ting innit

  YEET

• Just wont innit

  Moe Leicster

• khkkh

• I think tht the slave trade was just a bunch of bull crap.We did not need slaves to help us we were just to lazy to do anything. So we really ruined peoples lifes for doing that and they were taken away for nothing they should have been able to live like a normal person.

  ayden taule

• nope

  Tucker Corbello

• nope

  Tucker Corbello

• no

  tucker

• no

  tucker

• no
  

  tucker

• these niggers need to keep suckin my dick

  niggerbeater

• Farmer

  Tanveer

• condom
  

• hi people i v oted no
  
  
  
  
  
  

• eryhfdg

  fdgf

• gfrue5eeeytddk

  teytr

• I think we should take back africa.

  Cecil Rhodes

• slavery is dumb

• lololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololol!!!

  Poo lol

• because we need more niggers

  f u

• The commerce and infer-structure that built Manchester is in no small part built on the bodies, blood and genocide of slavery! 92% of the respondents to your poll seem to have swallowed the "magic" racist rhetoric that Britain was great regardless of slavery and it can be so again by sinking back into its racist and xenophobic past. Unlike 16/17/18/19/20 centuries, this century has an abundant supply of immediate information which will inform the participants of their own roles, "greatness" will never again be a disguise for wilful and habitual ignorance while enjoying the benefits of mass murder, genocide and crimes against humanity. (it might on the other hand be just a very small pool responding to it (I might make up 8% singlehanded!)

  conroy trenchfield

• i suck my niggers all the time and i love it

  randy seafert

• i suck myself sometimes when i am bored

  zach walker

• i suck myself sometimes when i am bored

  zach walker

• i beat my niggers with a stick

  logan betts

• yall can suck me

  Kevin James

• i have sex with niggers

  logan betts

• yall can suck me

  Kevin James

• i hate life right now

  Adam sandler

• They should buy alot more

  coulten coulter

• i hate life right now

  Adam sandler

• i hate life right now

  Adam sandler

• i think that they did not profit maybe idk though or care very much

  Randall sefart

• idc what so ever

  bobby boooooshey

• slaves are great for manchester
  

  mcwade

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• Niggers are gay

  Quentin Huckins

• because if the slave trade did not happen the world would not be the same as it is today x

  torrance taylor

• niggers

  kappa

• Subscribe to "Trollstation" On YouTube

  Gomes

• Subscribe to "Trollstation" On YouTube

  Gomes

• i dont know why i just put this as i was bored

  meg

• Dicks are good.

• They did it for da $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

  Da Boss

• Hi! I am not surprised! I am currently researching the history of the impact of the Slave trade to Portugal. It is a tabu topic in this country, although Portugal was the main slave trader of all the Europeans...I am now discovering that I hardly knew anything about it. Can you believe that there is NO Museum on this subject in Portugal and that the authorities tend to shove it under the carpet??? I am interested in learning from Manchester how to continue my research in Portugal and ideally the former Portuguese colonies too. I am focusing on the city of Oporto and Lagos for personal reasonns. Thanks for your time1

  Manuela Moura

• There were WHITE SLAVES in Africa .
  
  Read The Origins of the African Slave Trade by Piero Scaruffi .
  
  

  linda

• Have you read The Origins of the African Slave Trade by Piero Scaruffi ?
  

  linda

• 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

• your mom is biger than me ha ha you to

• good

  maxwell

• loads

  charlie

• Prejudice and racism along with slavery remain the same now as it was in the past ... no we cant move on until the problem has be solved or justified. .. this thing about fair trade . My question is who is it fair for? When you pay a person of colour from a coloured country 10 pence per day 70 pence a week is that fair? What happens when he/ she chop off a finger or accidentally chop a leg can less than £3 keep him and his family fed for a month? Thats still slavery ! We sell 1kilo of sugar for £1.40 is that fair on us who depend on that product?

• If Manchester hadn't involved themselves in the slave trade, they would have had more credit for being a people friendly environment, so surely, they would have profited more without the trade? I think any profits should be fair and well earned.

  Jess

• slaves

• The evidence suggests that Greater Manchester wouldn't be the way it is today without the slave trade.
  no

  no

• Slavery is bad and it is very bad and it is only to black or foreign people it is bad

  Jacob Gerish

• Greater Manchester would not have come into being if it wasn’t for the industrial revolution but in reference to other posts who do you suppose exactly would apologise for Lancashire’s involvement in the cotton trade? Certainly not the decedents of the working class mill workers whose Dickensian living conditions, physical abuse and exploitation by mill owners was every bit as abhorrent as the treatment of chattel slaves living on plantations in the southern states of America. And when are the native peoples from the horn of Africa from Gambia, Senegal, Ivory Coast going to face up to their capturing, incarceration and selling fellow Africans from neighbouring tribes. I visited Gambia in the 1990’s where the locals are quite open about how African chefs did very well out of the golden triangle even receiving abducted white women slave’s in return for black Africans.

• Greater Manchester would not have come into being if it wasn’t for the industrial revolution but in reference to other posts who do you suppose exactly would apologise for Lancashire’s involvement in the cotton trade? Certainly not the decedents of the working class mill workers whose Dickensian living conditions, physical abuse and exploitation by mill owners was every bit as abhorrent as the treatment of chattel slaves living on plantations in the southern states of America. And when are the native peoples from the horn of Africa from Gambia, Senegal, Ivory Coast going to face up to their capturing, incarceration and selling fellow Africans from neighbouring tribes. I visited Gambia in the 1990’s where the locals are quite open about how African chefs did very well out of the golden triangle even receiving abducted white women slave’s in return for black Africans.

• Slavery abroad but also ownership of employees at home with poor housing for city influx of workforce and enforced hours and conditions of work as well as low pay

  David Ratcliffe

• why africa europe?????????

  Awal Sayawdeen

• it is sick and crule

  mr x

• If Saying Yes Is Agreeing To The Statement. Then Am in Total Agreement. Having Worked For Manchester City Council & Seeing How They Operate, Without The Slave Trade, The Indutsrial Revolution Would Not Have Occurred & Manchester Would Not Have Profitted, Neither The Rich Cheshire & Derbyshire Families Who Helped Fund The Revolution Through Their Plantations In The Caribbean. Even The City's Coat Of Arms Still Have A Large Spooner (Ship) That Was Used To Transport Goods, Including Slaves Across The Atlantic.

  Balmaine Craig

• No because nowaday we have lots of large buisnesess and companys whereas in the olden days the poor people didnt have enough money so they had to do slavery for the rich.
  
  
  if i have made any wrong points please dont laugh i am only11!

  gemma

• Manchester did profit from slavery and it wasn't just by using imported slaves.....there were enough poor people paid very little for their labours and had no recourse prior to the Industrial Revolution. It didn't get much better after the revolution but a lot of the child labour laws started to change somewhat in so far as children as young as eight still worked in mines and mills but were expected only to work part time so that they could attend school, part-time. My grandfather was one of those children and his best friend at the time actually managed to be a manager of a mill in our town which shows it was possible to overcome adversity for some - one had to be determined to get an education and strive for a better life.
  Unfortunately the influx of British Citizens from 'the colonies' were and still are, to a degree, treated as if they had no right to any benefits (such as they are) that really are the rights of their forbears. The British people, today, don't know or don't want to know about the history of our part in slavery - probably because they are ignorant of the history and were never taught about that part of British History in school......more's the pity.

  P.M.E. Hendricks

• Where else would Manchester get the cotton-from Ireland?

  Prof R Moran

• Yep, Greater Manchester would have a far greater proportion of actual English people living in it, and less violent crime if some rich fellers a few centuries ago hadn´t been sold some Africans by other Africans. Bugger, eh?

  Bob

• think of it this way you are fortuneant to be born in a country such as yours, but that little boy or gild who didnt could of been you, so why are we still useing slavery in 2012 is so sad that we are so greedy and selfish, WE SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF OUR SELFS!

  Blind Eyes Open

• Slavery was a key element of the invasion by European countries of other countries in Africa and the Indian sub-continent. This is often referred to as colonisation. But in reality, European countries, including Britain, plundered the wealth of these countries and treated their inhabitants as second class, subjugated peoples. It was this plundering of wealth that enabled European cities, Manchester included, to develop the infrastructure that led to their current position. When Germany sought to invade Europe it was called war. It should be recognised that the actions of the British, labaelled colonisation, were actually acts of war for which we should be ashmed.

  Austin

• Slavery was a key element of the invasion by European countries of other countries in Africa and the Indian sub-continent. This is often referred to as colonisation. But in reality, European countries, including Britain, plundered the wealth of these countries and treated their inhabitants as second class, subjugated peoples. It was this plundering of wealth that enabled European cities, Manchester included, to develop the infrastructure that led to their current position. When Germany sought to invade Europe it was called war. It should be recognised that the actions of the British, labaelled colonisation, were actually acts of war for which we should be ashmed.

  Austin

• Yes of course. Slavery fueled the Industrial Revolution that built Manchester. A 'no' here is just denial, wishful thinking. We have a responsibility to ourselves and to the world to look at history (and the present) with fearless honesty. In order not to repeat mistakes.

  Susanne Skubik Intriligator

• This nation was one of the first to abolish this trade, and not just within Britain, which helped spell it's end. And yet, the question is still about Britain's complicity, when, exactly, can we turn British attention back towards the continuing trade today and finish what we started? Or is this simply beyond this century's British citizens?
  
  I will vote 'no' with over 90% of others on this post. If you wanted to talk about Bristol, or another port that prospered in this era, rather than the town of slums which Manchester was in this time with it's shocking child mortality rates, midst 19 Century industrialisation, I might've been more sympathetic.

  Markus

• slavery did have impacts on most of britain

• The Cotton trade relied on the Southern States who in return relied on their slave brought to them from Africa, often by merchants from Liverpool via Brazil etc. It was a three way trade. When the States fought over the issue of Slavery (and other things) it was Lancashire that suffered, many cotton works had no work and many immigrated to Australia because of this.
  My ancestors were many things, cotton workers, jewish, catholic, black, white, preachers and - oh yes - Slavers.

  Frances Hall

• Greater Manchesters wealth was created by the poor wretches that worked in the mills and factories in and around manchester. They were badly paid. generally in poor health, lacking decent food and, living in appalling conditions.Also the first slaves in the West Indies and north America were white convicts but they could not cope with the climate . If Africans had not sold their ,own countrymen for a few bits of coloured glass ,and cotton had not existed. Manchester would still be wealthy today. Because of the progression in learning and inventions all over Europe. You insult the memory of the working class people who lived and died in the in the hovels of manchester by your ill thought words suggesting their sufferings amounted for nothing .

  John Wilson

• Manchester was a town ruled by a "lord of the manor" and only very recently became a city in comparison to other UK cities. This was mainly down to the power & wealth of merchants who made their fortunes from the textile industry.
  
  Furthermore, much of Manchester's architecture is down to the immense amounts of money invested by these merchants, whether the large, ornate buildings around Piccadilly or the warehouse buildings around Deansgate.
  
  Despite any movements to end the slave trade and/or abolish slavery in the Victorian era, the most powerful men (and they always ARE men) still made their money from the slave trade, whether it was from cotton picked by African slaves in the West Indies or from importing silk products produced from slave labour in India & China.
  
  Manchester would not exist as it is today without the profits of slavery. The industrial revolution would not have happened without the abundance of raw cotton, hand-picked by people torn from their families and their cultures and transported in huge numbers to foreign countries to make rich merchants even richer.
  
  Don't get me wrong, I think modern-day Manchester is a great city with a strong, unique cultural diversity and some fantastic cultural, sporting and educational assets, but let's not kid ourselves that it wasn't built on the profits of slavery. Even the great philanthropists who established cultural and learning institutions are tainted by the legacy of slavery.
  
  We should all feel a litle embarrassed and ashamed, and make sure that cruelty and human exploitation of this scale never happens again. Modern day slavery goes on but we should make sure that Manchester never again profits from it but rather leads the way in ending it.

  Dave

• William Roscoe said that the numbers of those who made vast profits from the slave trade was limited to "a very narrow compass". The views expressed on this website are those of lazy academics who use apprentices to do the work of adults. For further information please see http://www.tioli.co.uk

  Jon Huddleston

• I trying to understand the past we should not judge their behaviour by our standards today. By the way most of the black slaves were sold by their own people to Arab traders and then on the white man. Most slavery today still takes place in Africa. Think of the poor woman and girls brought in as cheap household slaves by rich blacks and Arabs. While slavery is abhorent in all it's forms Britain was one of the first countries to go against the norm of the time and ban it. I've looked at some of the other arguements below and find the lack of intelligent content in some a sad refelection on the owners intelligence.

  farmermum

• This statement is true. I hate slavery. It is discusting.may it never be again.

  Uncle Tom's rememberer

• Slavery is awful and many have suffered from it.
  i wish nobody had ever DARED to THINK about it. But the statement above i think is true.

  goblestan

• Your intended propaganda is falling a bit flat isn't it? We live in a democracy and we are not stupid.

  Ann Rutherford

• Britain did NOT start slavery. It was NEVER legal here. nor were any slaves here.
  A few unscrupulous city trader mainly in Bristol did briefley benifit from this ancient Arab on African "act" but the British Government soon sent the Royal Navy to spend the next 100 years hunting down and eradicating the trade. Why doesn't the liberal biased education system provide tha facts for our young people? Why do they let this myth be perpetuated with damage to our future comunity cohesion? They are adding to a future powder keg I believe.

  Lee Corbusier

• Give it a rest. The Museum Comunity has been hijacked by the extreme middle, for whom this subject is a well worn old hobby horse.
  Stick to providing places for granddads to take their grandchildren when it is raining.
  If you really want to know what useful ways that you can make a positive contribution to our shared comunity call me and I will enlighten you.
  Anyway your question is rather obscure with its loaded bias and double negatives.
  And do you intend to imply that Manchester benifits from: A. Slavery in particular?
  B, The Empire in general? or C. resultant multiculturalism from either/both?
  
  

  Lee Corbusier

• i think history is very cool and i think that mr mansfeild is ultra special[:

  amelia&lucy

• Your question isn't really appropriate-G.Manchester is pretty much a mess today-the city didn't exactly benefit from the Slave Trade in the way that places like Venice benefitted from overseas trade. The only people who benefitted from slavery were a few rip off merchants who took their ill-gotten gains elsewhere when the game was up-simple people- the cotton workers of the time who were also in a lesser from of slavery-put their lives on the line to stop slavery. The city got nothing from it.

  Julia

• i think that slavery is still in this world not in the obvious name of before but rather in low wages or none.

  abraham moss

• I think there is still slavery in Manchester today

• I wonder if this si the question we should be asking - or whether it is more important to look forward to the future and ask how can we stop forms of slavery continuing???

  Doc H

• I agree that the slave trade is embedded into our history. I'm not sure how helpful a "what if" scenario is - you can't unpick it and imagine what life would have been like without it.

  C Factual

• I see no need to apologise. I don't see the mill and mine pwners apologising to my family for working my parents and gradparents for working them to a standstill at the tender age of 12 and thirteen for just a few pennies a week.
  All of the people concerned are long gone. We have moved on and all lead a better life, including the families of the enslaved, black, white, brown and yellow.
  It happened, we can't change history,
  MOVE ON/
  
  

  philip garrity