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History

It is true to say that without the transatlantic slave trade Liverpool would not have, according to one Liverpool MP, become 'the second place in wealth and population in the British Empire.' But the transatlantic slave trade was not the only means by which black people came and settled in the city.

Records show that black people were settling in the city as far back as the eighteenth century. It also seems that the British education system convinced a number of African kings and those of high status to send their children to be educated here.

Black Loyalist soldiers who fought on the side of the British in the American War of Independence also settled in Liverpool after the war had ended.

The appearance of a significant sized black community in Liverpool was originally situated around the south dock areas of Liverpool, due to the ships that docked there after trading with Africa and the Caribbean. The black settlement included seamen working for lines such as the Elder Dempster Line who even built a hostel for black seamen.

For more detailed information on the black presence in Liverpool, visit this interactive, virtual exhibition on the National Archives website.

A timeline for the British Transatlantic Slave Trade and its Abolition can be found here.

For information on the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in 2007, click here.