Image of seven African men in chains on a quayside with two sailorsThe records and documents of the various archives in Liverpool and Merseyside tell many interesting stories. They also tell some dark stories, and one of these is Liverpool’s involvement with the slave trade. The records of the port and the ships in the port tell of the profits which were made. We have documents which spell out the wages of the crew and captain of slave ships and the money they made from the voyages.
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We have many other documents kept by captains and port administrators which tell us what goods were carried in Liverpool ships, how many slaves they were exchanged for, how much the slaves were sold for, how many were lost crossing the Atlantic to America and what goods were brought back from the Americas to Britain.
The slave triangle
It is a depressing piece of world history. The three main journeys made as part of the slave trade meant that it was called the slave triangle.
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The first part of the triangle was called the outer passage when Europeans sailed to Africa and African rulers supplied Africans to European slavers in return for cheap manufactured goods, textiles and alcohol. The slaves were then transported across the Atlantic in the second part of the triangle (called The Middle Passage) and sold to work on plantations growing sugar, cotton, tobacco and many other crops. The final leg of the slave triangle was the Return Passage when goods like sugar and rum were brought back from America to Britain and other countries in Europe.
Many of Liverpool’s great trading and shipping companies, its great buildings, docks and industries owe their origins to the African slaves who suffered on the Middle Passage.