Extract of Chadwick's 1725 Plan of Liverpool

Liverpool and Slavery

Revealing a hidden history

Content by Laurence Westgaph

Liverpool's history is deeply intertwined with the history of transatlantic slavery, a phenomenon that significantly shaped the city's development and left enduring marks on its landscape. This site aims to illuminate the locations in Liverpool most associated with this history, offering insights into spaces that were shaped by the slave trade and that have become, or should become, places of memory and remembrance. By mapping important sites, this platform aspires to foster a nuanced understanding of Liverpool's historical landscape and built environment, illuminating the pervasive influence of the slave trade on the city's architectural and cultural development. Engaging with these locations enables the reader to critically reflect on the legacies of slavery that persist within the city and that have shaped the public realm in a multitude of ways. If using this as a walking guide, please take care when crossing roads and be considerate to other pedestrians.

Liverpool Town Hall

Liverpool Town Hall. Click to expand.

Liverpool Town Hall is probably the most significant building still standing in Liverpool that is directly connected to the trade in enslaved Africans. Not only was the building erected at a time when Liverpool had just become the preeminent British slaving port, but according to Fox Bourne, it was Liverpool’s most notable slave traders who had contributed the funds for the building of the Hall. Once it was erected it was also where the ‘Company of Merchants Trading to Africa’ met to discuss the conduct of the slave trade and to elect its London representatives.

Martin’s Bank Building, Water Street

Martin’s Bank Building, Water Street. Click to expand.

The burgeoning eighteenth and nineteenth-century financial industry of Liverpool benefited greatly from the town's involvement in slavery. Ten of the fourteen important Liverpool banks listed after 1750 were founded by slave traders. In 1831 the Bank of Liverpool began trading, many of the shareholders were former slave traders, the owners of slave plantations in the Americas or traders in the goods enslaved people produced. The first chairman of Bank of Liverpool was the slave owner and cotton merchant, William Brown, who would later build the Library and Museum on the street that bears his name. The Bank’s fortunes were linked with those of Liverpool’s merchants trading in slave-produced sugar, rum, tobacco and cotton from the Americas, trades that were significantly affected by the American Civil War in the 1860s. By the 1880s, however, the Bank had recovered enough to expand and in 1883 acquired Heywood's Bank that had been founded by the fabulously wealthy slave-trading Heywood brothers, in 1773.

St Nicholas Church

St Nicholas Church. Click to expand.

On the 1st October 1717 'Abell a blackmoor belonging to Mr Rock' was buried at Our Lady and St Nicholas Church. His 'owner' was probably Samuel/Lemuel Rock, one of the town's early slave merchants. Over the years, Abell's final resting place would see the interment of many enslaved people and also many of Liverpool's most prolific slave traders, including Bryan Blundell, founder of the Bluecoat School. The enslaved and the enslavers lie side by side in Liverpool's most historic graveyard. In 2020 a memorial stone was unveiled acknowledging the interment of Abell at St Nicholas more than 300 years after his death.

Goree

Goree. Click to expand.

Goree (pronounced goh-ray) runs alongside the George's Dock Building (Queensway Tunnel Ventilation Shaft) and must be one of the most uniquely named streets in the country. Of all the thoroughfares in the city with connections to slavery this one most clearly memorialises Liverpool's involvement in the trade. It commemorates an island off the coast of modern-day Senegal where ships would go to purchase enslaved Africans. Throughout most of the 18th century the island was controlled and used as a trading post by the French, but during the Seven Years War 1756-63, it was captured by the British and it was probably this event that led to the name being used as a Liverpool thoroughfare.

Canning Graving Docks

Canning Graving Docks. Click to expand.

The Canning Graving Docks, constructed during the mid eighteenth century, are the oldest part of the Liverpool dock system that can still be seen above ground. Just as Liverpool merchants had been responsible for the building of Britain's first commercial wet dock in 1715, at the same time they also pioneered the construction of the nation's first commercial graving dock. These facilities would prove critical to the city’s development as a global maritime powerhouse and would lead to more graving docks being built in Liverpool throughout the century. The Canning Docks are the oldest example still in existence and were renamed for the former Liverpool MP and Prime Minister, George Canning, after his death in 1827.

St Thomas’ Memorial Garden

St Thomas’ Memorial Garden. Click to expand.

Liverpool's role in the slave trade is actively understated in the town's historic memorials. One of the heritage projects created as part of the recent Liverpool One development is the St Thomas Memorial Garden, which occupies a piece of land that was once the graveyard of St Thomas Church, built on Park Lane in 1750. The church was closed in 1906 and subsequently demolished.

Felicia Hemans 1793-1835

Felicia Hemans 1793-1835. Click to expand.

On 16 May 1835, the famous Liverpool poet, Felicia Hemans (1793-1835) died. She was born in Duke Street in a house that still stands (pictured below). Her father, George Browne, was a Liverpool slave trader who invested in at least 5 slaving voyages, two of which he partnered in with Felicia's maternal uncle, John Michael Wagner. According to Rev James Aspinall, the son of a slaver himself, Hemans family also owned "large estates in the West Indies". For this reason he explains quite humorously, that she had grown up not liking the other great Liverpool poet and author of her day, William Roscoe, as she had only heard negative stories of the abolitionist in her household. A number of Britain's greatest literary figures of the 18th &19th centuries had connections to both slavery and the slave trade including another great female writer, Elizabeth Barratt Browning.

Gladstone and 62 Rodney Street

Gladstone and 62 Rodney Street. Click to expand.

On 29 December 1809, William Ewart Gladstone, widely regarded as one of Liverpool’s most notable figures and one of Britain’s most significant prime ministers, was born at what is now 62 Rodney Street. He was the son of John Gladstone, one of the largest British slave owners, whose wealth was built on plantations in Jamaica and Demerara.

William Rice’s House

William Rice’s House. Click to expand.

Wealth accrued from slavery and the slave trade totally transformed the built environment of Liverpool. Industrial buildings such as sugar refineries and warehousing erected to process and store slave-produced goods dotted the landscape. Fine residential buildings sprang up throughout the eighteenth century that provided slavers the opportunity to display their wealth architecturally. Unfortunately, most of Liverpool's Georgian buildings were lost in the late Victorian period and during the twentieth century, but some of these palatial homes survive and are now amongst Liverpool's most treasured edifices.

Clarence Street

Clarence Street. Click to expand.

In 1792 the Duke of Clarence, later William IV, used his maiden speech in the House of Lords to defend the slave trade. Liverpool responded by naming a street in his honour, laid out in 1796. In 1800, after another particularly rousing Lords address opposing abolition, he was made a freeman of the town. A delegation from the council travelled down to St James Palace to present the duke with the 'Freedom of the Borough in a Gold Box'. The delegation gave an address expressing 'the just and grateful sense which the Council of Liverpool have of your Royal Highness's active and able exertions in Parliament for the trade and commerce of the kingdom in points in which the town of Liverpool is particularly interested.'

Bold Street

Bold Street. Click to expand.

Bold Street was once known as the “Bond Street of the North”. It is named after Jonas Bold 1745-1822, who leased the land from Liverpool Corporation around 1785-6. He also owned a plot at the top of the street, which is now the site of St Luke’s Church. Bold Street was the home of the Lyceum Club, built by the famed architect, Thomas Harrison and opened in 1802. It was built to house the Liverpool Library, which is thought to be the oldest public subscription library in the country, founded in 1757. Many of the founder members of the Lyceum traded in enslaved Africans.

Brooks Alley

Brooks Alley. Click to expand.

Many streets in Liverpool commemorate merchants who became wealthy through the slave trade. Some of the most well known highways in the city bear their names. Bold Street, Slater St and Hardman Street are all named after slaving families, but one of the most notorious of thoroughfares named after the African traders is now little more than a back street, Brooks Alley. This ancient lane is named after the Brooks family, of whom no less than six individual members of the clan invested in slaving voyages.

Untitled tour point. Click to expand.

The Liverpool Blue Coat School, regarded as one of the city’s most prestigious educational institutions, was founded in 1708 by Bryan Blundell (1675-1756), a prominent slave trader. Blundell’s fortune, deeply rooted in the profits of the transatlantic slave trade, laid the financial foundation for the school. Over three generations, the Blundell family became one of Liverpool’s most influential slave trading dynasties, using their wealth not only to maintain their own status but also to fund public institutions like the Blue Coat.

Tarleton Street and Banastre Tarleton

Tarleton Street and Banastre Tarleton. Click to expand.

Tarleton Street is named after the Liverpool slave-trading Tarleton Family. The Tarletons produced three generations of slave traders. The most famous member of the family was Banastre Tarleton 1754-1833 (pictured) who fought famously for the British during the American War of Independence and fought just as valiantly in the House of Commons to prevent the end of the slave trade. Banastre’s grandfather was the first Tarleton to trade in enslaved Africans, his father, John was also involved, as were his three brothers, John, Clayton and Thomas.

Dorans Lane

Dorans Lane. Click to expand.

The tiny thoroughfare that connects Lord Street to Harrington Street is known as Dorans Lane, named after Felix Doran. There were two Felix Dorans, father and son, both of whom were slave traders and invested in at least 100 voyages between them, transporting tens of thousands into slavery in the Americas. Felix Sr (1708/09-1776), had come to Liverpool from Ireland and was investing in slave ships leaving from the port by 1737. The 1767 Gore's Liverpool Street Directory shows Doran living on Lord Street, possibly near to the lane that now carries his name. On the 25 August,1769, an advert for a runaway published in the Liverpool General Advertiser makes mention of Doran:

Heywood’s Bank, Brunswick St.

Heywood’s Bank, Brunswick St.. Click to expand.

In Brunswick Street stands the Grade II listed Heywood’s Bank, Liverpool’s oldest surviving purpose-built bank, erected in 1800. This was the place of business of Arthur and Richard Heywood, prominent Liverpool merchants who were the sons of Arthur Heywood, a successful Liverpool slave trader who had founded the bank in 1773 with his brother Benjamin.Ten out of the 14 important Liverpool banks founded after 1750 were owned by slave traders. Heywood Brothers bank was eventually bought by the Bank of Liverpool which also acquired Martin's Bank. Barclays eventually acquired the Bank of Liverpool. The building now houses a bar.

The Albany Buildings, Old Hall Street

The Albany Buildings, Old Hall Street. Click to expand.

The Grade II* listed Albany Buildings was built by the cotton merchant and banker, Richard Christopher Naylor (1814-1899). He was the youngest son of John Naylor, of Hartford Hill, Cheshire and Dorothy, sister of the Liverpool slave trader and banker, Richard Bullin. Richard and his brother Christopher were amongst the main beneficiaries of Thomas Leyland, their maternal uncle, a successful slave trader and one of the richest men in the country at the time of his death in 1827. Thomas Leyland partnered with his nephew Richard using their wealth derived from slave trading to found the Liverpool bank, Leyland and Bullin, in 1807. Richard’s brother, Christopher, later joined the firm. Both Richard and Christopher died childless and they left the bank, their fortunes and numerous estates to the three sons of their only sister, Dorothy. The Albany, completed in 1856, was a groundbreaking commercial building designed to serve Liverpool’s thriving cotton trade. Purpose-built for cotton brokers, it featured private offices tailored to their needs, a central courtyard allowing natural light and ventilation, warehousing in the basement and proximity to Liverpool’s bustling docks. According to one author, during the 1850s Liverpool’s trade in slave produced cotton was worth £14 million annually.

Earle Street

Earle Street. Click to expand.

Earle Street, Earle Road and Earlestown are all named after members of the Liverpool slave-trading dynasty, the Earle Family. The Earle Family of Liverpool were heavily involved in slavery and the slave trade over four generations, as slave ship owners, captains, and plantation landlords. John Earle 1674-1749(pictured) came to Liverpool from Warrington in 1688, joining the house of William Clayton, a Member of Parliament and a well-known merchant who partnered John in financing one of the first legal slave ships to leave Liverpool, the ‘Union’, in 1699. By 1700, John had established his own business and was trading in a range of commodities including: wine, tobacco, sugar and iron goods, whilst also investing in another two slaving voyages that year, firmly establishing the family interest in slaving that would continue for over a century. In 1709, John was elected Mayor of Liverpool and at some point purchased land off Old Hall Street where Earle Street is named in his honour.

St John’s Gardens

St John’s Gardens. Click to expand.

St John's Gardens (Churchyard) at the rear of St George's Hall is the final resting place of a number of enslaved people who lived and died in Liverpool. Also interred in the cemetery are free black people who lived here in the 18th century. The church also saw many baptisms of black people during the period. The following are a sample of references from St John's burial register: 29 April 1767 Mr Hamilton’s Black, Sambo 31 October 1767 Geo Campbell’s Black, Hamilton 25 November 1767 Capt Bailey’s Black 09 December 1767 Capt Morris’ Black, Campbell 25 January 1768 Mr Allen’s Black, Grainge 01 February 1768 Capt Hawkins Black, Coffee

Blackburn Assurance Building, Dale St

Blackburn Assurance Building, Dale St. Click to expand.

Founding father, signatory of the Declaration of Independence and ‘financier of the American Revolution’, Robert Morris, was born in Liverpool. Much is known about his career as a prominent figure in the revolution but less is discussed about his involvement in slavery. He was a slaveowner, trader and dealer in slave-produced goods, who accumulated great wealth allowing him to establish the Bank of North America, the oldest financial institution in the United States. He also owned vast tracts of land in a number of states including half the state of New York.

Liverpool Central Library and World Museum

Liverpool Central Library and World Museum. Click to expand.

Liverpool's stunning Central Library and World Museum have their origins in wealth accrued through slavery. Sir William Brown 1784-1864, the benefactor of both institutions, became one of the premier importers of slave-produced cotton into Liverpool during the first half of the nineteenth century and was the owner of many enslaved people on the family's plantations in the Deep South. Born in Ballymena, Ireland, his family travelled to the U.S. where they established the firm of Alexander Brown & Sons. After arriving in Liverpool from Baltimore he established a branch of his family firm here, in 1810. By 1826, after taking on a partner, Joseph Shipley, the firm was to become responsible for acquiring more cotton from the U.S. than any other mercantile house in Britain. In 1838, the company was responsible for the sale of 178,000 bales, equivalent to a massive 15.8 percent of all imports into the country for that year. The Liverpool house also took consignments of tobacco and other goods but cotton was the main focus and by 1844 Brown held one-sixth of the trade between Great Britain and the United States. According to Richard Cobden, "There is hardly a wind that blows, or a tide that flows in the Mersey, that does not bring a ship freighted with cotton or some other costly commodity for Mr Brown's house."

St George’s Church, Everton

St George’s Church, Everton. Click to expand.

In the early 19th century Everton was well established as the most fashionable area for the rich merchants of Liverpool to settle in. The baptism registers of the local church and grade I listed, St George's, Everton, show that after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, merchants would still bring enslaved people from their plantations in the colonies to Liverpool. Interestingly, the first minister at St. George's, was the son and namesake of the prominent slave trader, Robert J. Buddicom, who bought ten shares in the church at £100 each on its inception. A number of the original shareholders were former slave traders or slave plantation owners and are buried in St George’s graveyard, including Charles Horsfall, whose family would become arguably the most important Liverpool church builders of the nineteenth century. Many of Liverpool's finest surviving 18th and 19th century churches have their origins in wealth accrued through slavery. Baptism: 26 Oct 1817 St George, Everton, Lancashire, England Charles Wallace - Abode: Everton Occupation: Manservant Notes: An African Negro Servant to George Sealy Esq. Late of Brazil now of Everton, aged 18 years Baptised by: R. P. Buddicom Minister Baptism: 18 Feb 1818 St George, Everton, Lancashire, England Nicodemus John Nicholas - [Child] of Nicholas Abode: Demerara Occupation: Gentleman's Serv. Notes: 23 years old, born in Santa Cruz Baptised by: R. P. Buddicom Minister Baptism: 20 May 1818 St George, Everton, Lancashire, England Antonio Samuel Wylie - [Child] of Wylie Abode: Everton Occupation: Servant to John Wylie Esq. Notes: Born in Mozambique carried to Brazil as a slave.

Liverpool Town Hall

Liverpool Town Hall is probably the most significant building still standing in Liverpool that is directly connected to the trade in enslaved Africans. Not only was the building erected at a time when Liverpool had just become the preeminent British slaving port, but according to Fox Bourne, it was Liverpool’s most notable slave traders who had contributed the funds for the building of the Hall. Once it was erected it was also where the ‘Company of Merchants Trading to Africa’ met to discuss the conduct of the slave trade and to elect its London representatives.

Many of the men that held the office of Mayor throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were traders of enslaved people, slave plantation owners and merchants trading in slave produced goods, or their descendants. In fact, every person that held the office of Mayor from 1787 to 1807 was somehow connected to the slave trade. Much of the city’s incredible silver collection is a legacy of slavery and many of the portraits hanging in the hall depict merchants who became wealthy through the trade in human flesh directly or the goods the enslaved produced.

Martin’s Bank Building, Water Street

The burgeoning eighteenth and nineteenth-century financial industry of Liverpool benefited greatly from the town's involvement in slavery. Ten of the fourteen important Liverpool banks listed after 1750 were founded by slave traders. In 1831 the Bank of Liverpool began trading, many of the shareholders were former slave traders, the owners of slave plantations in the Americas or traders in the goods enslaved people produced. The first chairman of Bank of Liverpool was the slave owner and cotton merchant, William Brown, who would later build the Library and Museum on the street that bears his name. The Bank’s fortunes were linked with those of Liverpool’s merchants trading in slave-produced sugar, rum, tobacco and cotton from the Americas, trades that were significantly affected by the American Civil War in the 1860s. By the 1880s, however, the Bank had recovered enough to expand and in 1883 acquired Heywood's Bank that had been founded by the fabulously wealthy slave-trading Heywood brothers, in 1773.

By 1900, the Bank of Liverpool had 75 branches, 330 staff and 33,000 customers. The contribution to the banking industry by the town's slave traders would make Liverpool a major financial centre well into the twentieth century. In 1918 the Bank of Liverpool purchased Martin's Bank and became the only major English bank to have its headquarters outside London.

Martins' new headquarters on Water Street was built circa 1927 by the great architect Herbert J. Rowse(pictured). George H. Tyson Smith was commissioned to carve the sculptures for the buildings and at the office entrance there are two reliefs that each picture two African boys with manacles on their necks, wrists and ankles being consoled by Neptune. Whether these figures are relating directly to the origins of the bank's wealth is open to interpretation, as all good art is, but at the very least it is very ironic that an institution that was undoubtedly founded on wealth accrued through slavery would have such characters carved into its walls. It was said of Liverpool during the eighteenth century that 'every brick of the town was cemented by the blood of an African' it would seem that the legacies of Liverpool's involvement in slavery was still cementing bricks in the city during the twentieth. In 1969 Martin's bank was acquired by Barclays, who still own much of the records of the Liverpool slavers who had founded the Bank of Liverpool and the earlier Heywood's Bank.

St Nicholas Church

On the 1st October 1717 'Abell a blackmoor belonging to Mr Rock' was buried at Our Lady and St Nicholas Church. His 'owner' was probably Samuel/Lemuel Rock, one of the town's early slave merchants. Over the years, Abell's final resting place would see the interment of many enslaved people and also many of Liverpool's most prolific slave traders, including Bryan Blundell, founder of the Bluecoat School. The enslaved and the enslavers lie side by side in Liverpool's most historic graveyard. In 2020 a memorial stone was unveiled acknowledging the interment of Abell at St Nicholas more than 300 years after his death.

"Ellen a Negro belonging to Capt Carr" the first enslaved woman to have been laid to rest in Liverpool was also buried in St Nicholas' Churchyard, 23rd Feb 1737/8. As of yet there is no memorial to her. Black people, both free and enslaved, are to be found in the records of all of Liverpool's major 18th century churches.

Goree

Goree (pronounced goh-ray) runs alongside the George's Dock Building (Queensway Tunnel Ventilation Shaft) and must be one of the most uniquely named streets in the country. Of all the thoroughfares in the city with connections to slavery this one most clearly memorialises Liverpool's involvement in the trade. It commemorates an island off the coast of modern-day Senegal where ships would go to purchase enslaved Africans. Throughout most of the 18th century the island was controlled and used as a trading post by the French, but during the Seven Years War 1756-63, it was captured by the British and it was probably this event that led to the name being used as a Liverpool thoroughfare.

In 1763, at the end of hostilities the Treaty of Paris ceded control of the island back to the French but the Liverpool street name evidently was kept, as can be seen on the John Eyes map of Liverpool, published in 1765. During the American War of Independence 1775-1783, the British once again took control of the Island but it was again returned to the French when the war ended. In 1793, with Liverpool's transatlantic trade booming, the Goree Warehouses were built on the site. The original buildings were destroyed by a fire in 1802 but were rebuilt in 1811 and remained in situ until finally being demolished in the 1950s after they had been damaged in bombing during WWII.

Canning Graving Docks

The Canning Graving Docks, constructed during the mid eighteenth century, are the oldest part of the Liverpool dock system that can still be seen above ground. Just as Liverpool merchants had been responsible for the building of Britain's first commercial wet dock in 1715, at the same time they also pioneered the construction of the nation's first commercial graving dock. These facilities would prove critical to the city’s development as a global maritime powerhouse and would lead to more graving docks being built in Liverpool throughout the century. The Canning Docks are the oldest example still in existence and were renamed for the former Liverpool MP and Prime Minister, George Canning, after his death in 1827.

Designed for the repair and maintenance of ships, the dry docks enabled Liverpool to manage its burgeoning trade networks and were central to the city's extensive involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, a connection that shaped the docks' early purpose and function. The graving docks were directly linked to the slave trade through their role in maintaining the fleet of slave ships operating out of Liverpool. This trade saw goods from Britain exchanged for enslaved Africans on the West African coast, who were then transported to the Americas. The profits from selling enslaved people funded return cargoes of sugar, cotton, tobacco and other valuable commodities to Britain. The upkeep of ships involved in this trade was essential, making the graving docks a vital component of Liverpool’s maritime trade. The extensive dock facilities in the town were instrumental in Liverpool surpassing Bristol and London to become Britain’s leading slave-trading port, responsible for around 40% of Europe’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

St Thomas’ Memorial Garden

Liverpool's role in the slave trade is actively understated in the town's historic memorials. One of the heritage projects created as part of the recent Liverpool One development is the St Thomas Memorial Garden, which occupies a piece of land that was once the graveyard of St Thomas Church, built on Park Lane in 1750. The church was closed in 1906 and subsequently demolished.

The information board on the site provides details about some of the notable individuals laid to rest there. One of those remembered, but who is not actually buried here is James Currie, a medic, and 'noted abolitionist', highlighting that some brave individuals based in Liverpool opposed the slave trade. Yet the far more significant role that Liverpool's entrepreneurs played in actively taking part in the slave trade is not mentioned, even though three of the individuals commemorated on the board were prominent slave traders. John Okill, who gifted the land on which the church was built, is referred to as a 'timber merchant' without mentioning he invested in at least twelve slaving voyages. William Pownall is remembered as 'a successful merchant, magistrate and shipbuilder' without reference to the 43 voyages he had shares in. Richard Tate, is mentioned as 'a wealthy and successful snuff and tobacco merchant'. Although the tobacco Tate manufactured was produced by enslaved people, he also invested in slaving directly, having an interest in at least eleven voyages.

Felicia Hemans 1793-1835

On 16 May 1835, the famous Liverpool poet, Felicia Hemans (1793-1835) died. She was born in Duke Street in a house that still stands (pictured below). Her father, George Browne, was a Liverpool slave trader who invested in at least 5 slaving voyages, two of which he partnered in with Felicia's maternal uncle, John Michael Wagner. According to Rev James Aspinall, the son of a slaver himself, Hemans family also owned "large estates in the West Indies". For this reason he explains quite humorously, that she had grown up not liking the other great Liverpool poet and author of her day, William Roscoe, as she had only heard negative stories of the abolitionist in her household. A number of Britain's greatest literary figures of the 18th &19th centuries had connections to both slavery and the slave trade including another great female writer, Elizabeth Barratt Browning.

Gladstone and 62 Rodney Street

On 29 December 1809, William Ewart Gladstone, widely regarded as one of Liverpool’s most notable figures and one of Britain’s most significant prime ministers, was born at what is now 62 Rodney Street. He was the son of John Gladstone, one of the largest British slave owners, whose wealth was built on plantations in Jamaica and Demerara.

In 1823, Demerara witnessed its largest slave rebellion on a Gladstone-owned plantation. The insurrection was brutally suppressed, with many enslaved individuals mutilated or executed for daring to resist their enslavement. When slavery was abolished, the Gladstone family received the largest compensation payment awarded by the British government—over £100,000 for the emancipation of more than 2,000 enslaved people. Though William himself did not claim compensation, handwritten records reveal his active role in calculating his father’s human property and the compensation due to the family.

While Gladstone is remembered for championing Irish Home Rule and parliamentary reform, his early career was deeply tied to the defence of slavery. As a young MP, his first parliamentary speeches defended slavery and countered accusations of mistreatment of enslaved individuals on his family’s plantations. Later, during the American Civil War, he voiced support for the Confederacy, further reflecting the complexities of his legacy.

William Rice’s House

Wealth accrued from slavery and the slave trade totally transformed the built environment of Liverpool. Industrial buildings such as sugar refineries and warehousing erected to process and store slave-produced goods dotted the landscape. Fine residential buildings sprang up throughout the eighteenth century that provided slavers the opportunity to display their wealth architecturally. Unfortunately, most of Liverpool's Georgian buildings were lost in the late Victorian period and during the twentieth century, but some of these palatial homes survive and are now amongst Liverpool's most treasured edifices.

The first house built on Mount Pleasant, circa 1767 (pictured), was erected for the slave trader, William Rice. Rice began his career as a slave ship captain but quickly made enough money to retire from the sea and became a prolific investor financing more than fifty slave voyages. The house laid derelict for decades, but was restored approximately fifteen years ago. The building is grade II listed and is now used as a restaurant.

Clarence Street

In 1792 the Duke of Clarence, later William IV, used his maiden speech in the House of Lords to defend the slave trade. Liverpool responded by naming a street in his honour, laid out in 1796. In 1800, after another particularly rousing Lords address opposing abolition, he was made a freeman of the town. A delegation from the council travelled down to St James Palace to present the duke with the 'Freedom of the Borough in a Gold Box'. The delegation gave an address expressing 'the just and grateful sense which the Council of Liverpool have of your Royal Highness's active and able exertions in Parliament for the trade and commerce of the kingdom in points in which the town of Liverpool is particularly interested.'

This euphemistic decree seems not to have registered with the duke, who responded by asserting that: 'the sense the Corporation has entertained of my exertions in Parliament, on the discussion of questions relative to the African Slave Trade, is highly flattering to me... I am happy if my feeble efforts have succeeded in defending an interest which I felt it my indispensible duty to support, and which was suffering from the exaggeration of facts and the prejudice of opinion.'

Bold Street

Bold Street was once known as the “Bond Street of the North”. It is named after Jonas Bold 1745-1822, who leased the land from Liverpool Corporation around 1785-6. He also owned a plot at the top of the street, which is now the site of St Luke’s Church. Bold Street was the home of the Lyceum Club, built by the famed architect, Thomas Harrison and opened in 1802. It was built to house the Liverpool Library, which is thought to be the oldest public subscription library in the country, founded in 1757. Many of the founder members of the Lyceum traded in enslaved Africans.

Prior to Bold acquiring the land it had been home to the rope-works of the slave traders Joseph and Jonathan Brooks, whom Brooks Alley is named after. Jonas Bold laid the land out for house building and by 1789 the street had become the home of John Gladstone, before he moved to Rodney Street where his son, the future prime minister, William Ewart Gladstone would be born in 1809. As well as investing in real estate Bold was also a slave trader, sugar merchant, mayor and a partner in the banking firm Staniforth, Ingram, Bold and Daltera, all four men were involved in the slave trade. Joseph Daltera advertised for sale in the Williamson’s Advertiser on June 17 1757: “To be sold TEN pipes of raisin wine, a parcel of bottled cyder, and a Negro boy....” Many of Liverpool’s merchants during the 18th century were slave traders and/or purveyors of slave-produced goods such as sugar, coffee, tobacco or cotton.

Brooks Alley

Many streets in Liverpool commemorate merchants who became wealthy through the slave trade. Some of the most well known highways in the city bear their names. Bold Street, Slater St and Hardman Street are all named after slaving families, but one of the most notorious of thoroughfares named after the African traders is now little more than a back street, Brooks Alley. This ancient lane is named after the Brooks family, of whom no less than six individual members of the clan invested in slaving voyages.

Joseph Brooks (pictured), owned the land the street was laid through and was a prominent figure in Liverpool's civic life during the eighteenth century, holding many important offices including Treasurer of the Parish, responsible for caring for the poor of Liverpool. Based on current evidence, it was he who began the family's involvement with slaving in 1748 and was later joined by his brothers John and Jonathan on subsequent voyages. But it was Joseph's nephew and namesake, Joseph Brooks junior, who was the owner of one of the most infamous trading vessels in history, 'The Brookes'. The Brookes was immortalised by the Plymouth Chapter of the Society for effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade who created a poster showing a diagram of the Brookes laid out with its human cargo. This image was then made widely available by the printer and bookseller, James Phillips, allowing it to be used by abolitionists in their campaign to demonstrate an aspect of the true horror of the conditions in which enslaved people were stowed and transported. The largescale distribution of the poster throughout the nation created one of the most enduring and powerful political images of the eighteenth century.

On four voyages between 1782 and 1787, The Brookes never carried less than 600 enslaved Africans on the middle passage from West Africa to the Caribbean; many died as a result of the terrible conditions on board. On one voyage in 1785 from the Gold Coast to Jamaica, the hold was packed with 740 people only 635 of whom survived the voyage. When parliament debated the slave trade in 1788 one of those called to give evidence before the Privy Council was the ex-surgeon of The Brookes, Thomas Trotter. Evidence given by Trotter and others at these debates led to an Act of Parliament being passed in 1789 which limited the number of slaves that could be carried on a ship according to its tonnage. In the Brooks’ case the maximum number allowed was 454, the number of people depicted in the poster. The print viscerally illustrates that although the Brookes never travelled with less than 600 onboard even with 454 people berthed the conditions would have been indescribable.

The Liverpool Blue Coat School, regarded as one of the city’s most prestigious educational institutions, was founded in 1708 by Bryan Blundell (1675-1756), a prominent slave trader. Blundell’s fortune, deeply rooted in the profits of the transatlantic slave trade, laid the financial foundation for the school. Over three generations, the Blundell family became one of Liverpool’s most influential slave trading dynasties, using their wealth not only to maintain their own status but also to fund public institutions like the Blue Coat.

As a charity school, the Blue Coat depended heavily on donations from Liverpool’s merchant class. Many of its benefactors were actively involved in the transatlantic slave trade or profited from goods produced through enslaved labour, such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton. It is estimated that more than 65% of the funds used to construct the school’s iconic building, erected in 1717, came from individuals or businesses with direct ties to the slave economy. These contributions highlight how deeply intertwined Liverpool's civic and educational development was with the profits of slavery. The Blue Coat continued to receive significant support from slave traders throughout the 18th century, both for its maintenance and expansion. This ongoing financial backing helped the school to flourish, positioning it as a leading institution in the city, while also reinforcing the social standing of the merchants and slavers who funded it.

One notable figure in the school's history is John Earle, another prominent Liverpool slave trader. Earle served as Mayor of Liverpool in 1709, and during his mayoralty, he laid the foundation stone for the original Blue Coat, replaced by the one that stands today. Earle’s involvement exemplifies the close connections between the city’s political leadership and the slave trade. His contributions, like those of the Blundells and many other merchants, illustrate how the school’s growth was directly tied to the wealth generated by the enslavement and exploitation of African people.

The Blundell family’s multi-generational involvement in both the school and the slave trade is further highlighted by Bryan Blundell’s son, Jonathan Blundell, and his grandson, Henry Blundell Hollinshead. Both continued to support the Blue Coat, ensuring that the family’s legacy within the school remained strong while maintaining their prominence in Liverpool’s slave trading networks.

The early history of the Liverpool Blue Coat School reflects the broader story of the city’s rise as a major port in the transatlantic slave trade. The school's establishment and success were built on the wealth generated by the trafficking of enslaved African people and the labour of those forced to work on plantations.

Tarleton Street and Banastre Tarleton

Tarleton Street is named after the Liverpool slave-trading Tarleton Family. The Tarletons produced three generations of slave traders. The most famous member of the family was Banastre Tarleton 1754-1833 (pictured) who fought famously for the British during the American War of Independence and fought just as valiantly in the House of Commons to prevent the end of the slave trade. Banastre’s grandfather was the first Tarleton to trade in enslaved Africans, his father, John was also involved, as were his three brothers, John, Clayton and Thomas.

General Banastre Tarleton used his fame as a colonial war hero to ensure he became MP for Liverpool in the 1790 parliamentary elections, although it was probably a dispute over beer that was the main factor in his success. Once elected he utilised his position as MP to protect his family’s business interests, fighting vociferously to ensure that the slave trade was preserved by the British Government. He had a vested family interest in the continuation of the slave trade, although as an MP for Liverpool his stance on the African trade was the norm. With the exception of William Roscoe, all of the town’s MPs during the 18th and early 19th centuries were opposed to the abolition of the slave trade, with a number of them being slavers themselves. A portrait of Banastre Tarleton by Sir Joshua Reynolds now hangs in the National Gallery in London, his father, John, was painted by another of the great eighteenth-century portrait artists, Joseph Wright of Derby.

The site of John's house (pictured) on the corner of Water Street and Fenwick Street, where Banastre was born is marked by a historic plaque. Interestingly, the abolitionist Zachary Macaulay travelled as a passenger from Sierra Leone to England via the West Indies on a Tarleton Brothers slave ship, the Ann Phillipa. During the voyage, he kept a diary describing the terrible events he witnessed on board. In order to disguise the contents of the journal from the ship’s crew, he wrote his entries using Greek letters.

Dorans Lane

The tiny thoroughfare that connects Lord Street to Harrington Street is known as Dorans Lane, named after Felix Doran. There were two Felix Dorans, father and son, both of whom were slave traders and invested in at least 100 voyages between them, transporting tens of thousands into slavery in the Americas. Felix Sr (1708/09-1776), had come to Liverpool from Ireland and was investing in slave ships leaving from the port by 1737. The 1767 Gore's Liverpool Street Directory shows Doran living on Lord Street, possibly near to the lane that now carries his name. On the 25 August,1769, an advert for a runaway published in the Liverpool General Advertiser makes mention of Doran:

WHEREAS on Friday the 4th of August, 1769, ELOPED from the ship Loyal Briton, JAMES YOUNG commander, lately arrived from St. Kitts, a NEGRO MAN, commonly known by the name of JOHN CARR, a thick well set fellow, about 30 years of age, marked with his country mark on his forehead, has an impediment in his speech, and had when he run away, a kind of a stye, lately come on one of his eyes; is well known in London, having lived with the said James Young and his father upwards of twenty two years. Whoever will give any intelligence of him, so that he may be secured to Capt. James Young, at no. 24 Prescot-street, Goodman’s-fields, LONDON, or to Mr. Felix Doran, Merchant in LIVERPOOL, will have FIVE GUINEAS REWARD. N.B. He has gone by the above name, some years, the stye may be gone off before now, as it was only cold he got on the passage here. Felix Jr (1758-1827) took up the mantle after the family patriarch died, joining up with his father's former trading partner, Thomas Foxcroft, and went on to become an important Liverpool slaver in his own right. It is during the son's rise that Dorans Lane first appears on a surviving Liverpool map, printed in the year 1785.

Heywood’s Bank, Brunswick St.

In Brunswick Street stands the Grade II listed Heywood’s Bank, Liverpool’s oldest surviving purpose-built bank, erected in 1800. This was the place of business of Arthur and Richard Heywood, prominent Liverpool merchants who were the sons of Arthur Heywood, a successful Liverpool slave trader who had founded the bank in 1773 with his brother Benjamin.Ten out of the 14 important Liverpool banks founded after 1750 were owned by slave traders. Heywood Brothers bank was eventually bought by the Bank of Liverpool which also acquired Martin's Bank. Barclays eventually acquired the Bank of Liverpool. The building now houses a bar.

The Albany Buildings, Old Hall Street

The Grade II* listed Albany Buildings was built by the cotton merchant and banker, Richard Christopher Naylor (1814-1899). He was the youngest son of John Naylor, of Hartford Hill, Cheshire and Dorothy, sister of the Liverpool slave trader and banker, Richard Bullin. Richard and his brother Christopher were amongst the main beneficiaries of Thomas Leyland, their maternal uncle, a successful slave trader and one of the richest men in the country at the time of his death in 1827. Thomas Leyland partnered with his nephew Richard using their wealth derived from slave trading to found the Liverpool bank, Leyland and Bullin, in 1807. Richard’s brother, Christopher, later joined the firm. Both Richard and Christopher died childless and they left the bank, their fortunes and numerous estates to the three sons of their only sister, Dorothy. The Albany, completed in 1856, was a groundbreaking commercial building designed to serve Liverpool’s thriving cotton trade. Purpose-built for cotton brokers, it featured private offices tailored to their needs, a central courtyard allowing natural light and ventilation, warehousing in the basement and proximity to Liverpool’s bustling docks. According to one author, during the 1850s Liverpool’s trade in slave produced cotton was worth £14 million annually.

Earle Street

Earle Street, Earle Road and Earlestown are all named after members of the Liverpool slave-trading dynasty, the Earle Family. The Earle Family of Liverpool were heavily involved in slavery and the slave trade over four generations, as slave ship owners, captains, and plantation landlords. John Earle 1674-1749(pictured) came to Liverpool from Warrington in 1688, joining the house of William Clayton, a Member of Parliament and a well-known merchant who partnered John in financing one of the first legal slave ships to leave Liverpool, the ‘Union’, in 1699. By 1700, John had established his own business and was trading in a range of commodities including: wine, tobacco, sugar and iron goods, whilst also investing in another two slaving voyages that year, firmly establishing the family interest in slaving that would continue for over a century. In 1709, John was elected Mayor of Liverpool and at some point purchased land off Old Hall Street where Earle Street is named in his honour.

At his death in 1749, three of his four surviving children: Ralph 1715-1790, Thomas 1719-1781 and William 1721-1788, were trading in beads, one of a variety of commodities used in slave trading on the African coast. All three brothers were also investors in slaving voyages. Ralph became mayor of Liverpool in 1769 and John’s youngest son, William, captained a slave ship as well as partnering with his brothers in many slaving vessels.

After William died in 1788, his sons Thomas 1754-1822 and William (1760-1839) took over the family business including their slaving interests. Thomas served as mayor in 1787 and by this time had used the family wealth to purchase the Spekeland estate, where in 1805 he built Spekeland House, close to the site of Earle Road. By the 1830s, the Earle’s owned a number of plantations in Antigua and Thomas’s son, Sir Hardman Earle, 1st Baronet 1792-1877, received more than £19000 in compensation for the enslaved people he had to free when slavery was abolished in 1834. Hardman used his wealth to commission Harvey Lonsdale Elmes to build Allerton Tower. Sir Hardman was the Director of the London & North Western Railway and Earlestown near Newton-le-Willows is named in his honour.

St John’s Gardens

St John's Gardens (Churchyard) at the rear of St George's Hall is the final resting place of a number of enslaved people who lived and died in Liverpool. Also interred in the cemetery are free black people who lived here in the 18th century. The church also saw many baptisms of black people during the period. The following are a sample of references from St John's burial register: 29 April 1767 Mr Hamilton’s Black, Sambo 31 October 1767 Geo Campbell’s Black, Hamilton 25 November 1767 Capt Bailey’s Black 09 December 1767 Capt Morris’ Black, Campbell 25 January 1768 Mr Allen’s Black, Grainge 01 February 1768 Capt Hawkins Black, Coffee

There are numerous memorials that have been erected in St John's Gardens, including one to French prisoners interred here during the Napoleonic Wars and a statue of the son of a slave owner, the four times prime minister, William Gladstone. Unfortunately there is no memorial or mention of the enslaved who are buried here in any of the literature printed on the gardens.

Blackburn Assurance Building, Dale St

Founding father, signatory of the Declaration of Independence and ‘financier of the American Revolution’, Robert Morris, was born in Liverpool. Much is known about his career as a prominent figure in the revolution but less is discussed about his involvement in slavery. He was a slaveowner, trader and dealer in slave-produced goods, who accumulated great wealth allowing him to establish the Bank of North America, the oldest financial institution in the United States. He also owned vast tracts of land in a number of states including half the state of New York.

A plaque erected in the Blackburn Assurance building in 1999 that now occupies the site of hls birthplace, Chorley Court (pictured), made no reference to his involvement in slavery and the slave trade, but in 2022 LCVS erected an additional plaque that provided information that highlighted Morris’ connections to transatlantic slavery.

Liverpool Central Library and World Museum

Liverpool's stunning Central Library and World Museum have their origins in wealth accrued through slavery. Sir William Brown 1784-1864, the benefactor of both institutions, became one of the premier importers of slave-produced cotton into Liverpool during the first half of the nineteenth century and was the owner of many enslaved people on the family's plantations in the Deep South. Born in Ballymena, Ireland, his family travelled to the U.S. where they established the firm of Alexander Brown & Sons. After arriving in Liverpool from Baltimore he established a branch of his family firm here, in 1810. By 1826, after taking on a partner, Joseph Shipley, the firm was to become responsible for acquiring more cotton from the U.S. than any other mercantile house in Britain. In 1838, the company was responsible for the sale of 178,000 bales, equivalent to a massive 15.8 percent of all imports into the country for that year. The Liverpool house also took consignments of tobacco and other goods but cotton was the main focus and by 1844 Brown held one-sixth of the trade between Great Britain and the United States. According to Richard Cobden, "There is hardly a wind that blows, or a tide that flows in the Mersey, that does not bring a ship freighted with cotton or some other costly commodity for Mr Brown's house."

The company became so affluent that they began to focus primarily on financing shipping firms bringing goods to Britain, selling their plantations (and all the enslaved people on them) in the South by 1860, just a year before the outbreak of the American Civil War. The business evolved into a merchant bank that survives to this day as Brown Shipley & Co Ltd (trading as Brown Shipley BCSo), with headquarters in London.

In gratitude to Brown for donating £40000 for the building of the library and museum, Shaw's Brow, the thoroughfare on which they were erected was renamed William Brown Street. The building was officially opened to the public on 18 October 1860 and at a banquet held in the evening a statue in his honour was erected in St George’s Hall that still stands today. William Brown served as M.P. for South Lancashire from 1846-1859 and was made a baronet in 1863. He died 3 March 1864, and was buried in St James Cemetery.

St George’s Church, Everton

In the early 19th century Everton was well established as the most fashionable area for the rich merchants of Liverpool to settle in. The baptism registers of the local church and grade I listed, St George's, Everton, show that after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, merchants would still bring enslaved people from their plantations in the colonies to Liverpool. Interestingly, the first minister at St. George's, was the son and namesake of the prominent slave trader, Robert J. Buddicom, who bought ten shares in the church at £100 each on its inception. A number of the original shareholders were former slave traders or slave plantation owners and are buried in St George’s graveyard, including Charles Horsfall, whose family would become arguably the most important Liverpool church builders of the nineteenth century. Many of Liverpool's finest surviving 18th and 19th century churches have their origins in wealth accrued through slavery. Baptism: 26 Oct 1817 St George, Everton, Lancashire, England Charles Wallace - Abode: Everton Occupation: Manservant Notes: An African Negro Servant to George Sealy Esq. Late of Brazil now of Everton, aged 18 years Baptised by: R. P. Buddicom Minister Baptism: 18 Feb 1818 St George, Everton, Lancashire, England Nicodemus John Nicholas - [Child] of Nicholas Abode: Demerara Occupation: Gentleman's Serv. Notes: 23 years old, born in Santa Cruz Baptised by: R. P. Buddicom Minister Baptism: 20 May 1818 St George, Everton, Lancashire, England Antonio Samuel Wylie - [Child] of Wylie Abode: Everton Occupation: Servant to John Wylie Esq. Notes: Born in Mozambique carried to Brazil as a slave.

Baptised by: R. P. Buddicom Minister Baptism: 15 Nov 1818 St George, Everton, Lancashire, England Samuel Barnes - [Child] of Barnes Abode: Everton Occupation: Gentleman's Serv. Notes: Born a slave in the Island of Antigua Baptised by: R. P. Buddicom Minister

Baptism: 22 Jul 1820 St George, Everton, Lancashire, England William Jeffery - Abode: Everton Notes: An African Negro Baptised by: J. B. Wanton Offg. Min.

Baptism: 12 Apr 1824 St George, Everton, Lancashire, England Charles - Abode: Everton Occupation: Servant to Geo Frederick Dickson Notes: An African Negro bought at Buenos Ayres & bought [sic] to England about 21 years old Baptised by: R. P. Buddicom

Conclusion This website serves as a gateway to understanding Liverpool’s deep and long lasting historical connections to Africa and the Americas through transatlantic slavery. By mapping key locations associated with this history, we aim to provide an accessible and engaging resource for exploring how Liverpool’s economic, cultural and social growth was deeply entwined with the exploitation of enslaved peoples and the wealth generated by colonial exploitation.

Each mapped site represents a fragment of this intricate history. From the docks where ships departed on slaving voyages, to the grand buildings funded by profits from goods produced by enslaved people, these locations tell the story of how slavery permeated nearly every aspect of Liverpool’s development during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They also highlight the ways in which the city’s merchants, institutions, and industries benefited from this system, while communities across Africa and the Americas endured immense suffering and loss.

This resource is designed not only to inform but also to foster reflection and dialogue. By shining a light on Liverpool’s ties to slavery and colonialism, we hope to confront the legacy of these historical injustices and their continuing impact on the modern world. The website encourages users to connect with these stories and to think critically about how the past shapes our present, from societal inequalities to ongoing discussions about reparations and historical accountability.

Through this platform, we aspire to ensure that these histories are neither forgotten nor marginalised. Instead, they should serve as a foundation for greater understanding, education, and action, allowing us to confront uncomfortable truths while honouring the resilience and contributions of those whose lives were irrevocably shaped by transatlantic slavery. By preserving these memories, Liverpool—and the wider world—can take meaningful steps toward acknowledging and addressing this shared history.

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Hosted by the Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool.

Constructed by Tinho da Cruz, Map Librarian.