How do you ensure that the history and legacy of the transatlantic slave trade will somehow remain in the minds and muscles of young people?  How does a contemporary society restore to its public memory such a momentous event as its own participation in the transatlantic slave trade?  These were the questions that rang in my head as we departed Liverpool for Bristol.

John Kamara - Amistad's deckhand and native of Sierra Leone triumphantly showing the Sierra Leonean colors while the Freedom Schooner sails into Albert Dock in Liverpool.

Photo courtesy of Albert Novelli

Browse through a gallery of photos by Keith Fairbrother showing Amistad's arrival to Albert Dock

Take A Virtual Tour of the Albert Dock 

Six students who are participating in the Fall Semester Sankofa College Program, the students staff (Tracie Jones and Donna Kelly), and Faculty (Dwayne Williams Ph.D.and Eliza Garfield Ph.D.) are on the campus of the University of Liverpool.  We are completing the first phase of the academic program ashore while the Freedom Schooner Amistad is underway from Falmouth to Liverpool sailed by the professional crew under the command of the new captain - Steve Olsen.

There are four students from the United States: Dustin Ford (Washington, DC),  Dominic Clayton (New Jersey),  Paula McFarlane (Bridgeport, CT), and Lesandra Bailey  (New York); one student from Canada:  Haley Cox (Nova Scotia); and one from England:  Molly Crossthwaite (Bristol). See them having a "Beatles moment" in Liverpool:

Opening date

The International Slavery Museum will open on Thursday 23 August 2007.

Opening times

There will be extended opening hours of 9.45am-7pm on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 August.

The museum will open early from 9.45am-5pm from Saturday 25 to Tuesday 28 August 2007.

From Wednesday 29 August 2007 the museum will be open daily 10am-5pm.

Closed from 2pm on 24 December and all day on 25 and 26 December and 1 January.

Free admission tickets

Liverpool was the hub of the British Empire's slave trade. Over 90% of the vessels used to transport British slave cargo came from Liverpool. Historians estimate nearly 1.5 million Africans were carried across the Atlantic in ships from the city's docks. 

In 1700 Liverpool entered the slave trade with the launch of the vessel Liverpool Merchant. Liverpool quickly became one corner of the infamous 'Slave Triangle', along with Africa and the Americas.

In the second half of the 18th century Liverpool's sphere of influence in the slave trade increased dramatically. Wealth was accumulated among institutions and citizens paving the way for commercial growth in the port town. In the 1790's and early 1800's nearly 130 ships were departing Liverpool annually for the shores of Western Africa in search of slave cargo. Liverpool accounted for nearly half of all slaves Britain shipped across the Atlantic during the trade.

Liverpool benefitted from its proximity to an extensive network of waterways linking the city to other British towns that provided access to textiles, alcohol, beads, firearms, copper and brass. These goods were in turn shipped to Africa and traded for slaves. In America the slaves were sold for goods to be shipped back to England, including cotton, sugar, coffee and tobacco.

Liverpool had the backing of several town MP's and mayors who not only invested in the trade themsleves but also supported the slave trade in Parliament. The trade was incredibly lucrative to the town, with most of the wealth accumulated between 1750 up until 1807, when the British Empire abolished the trade.

In July of 1807 the Kitty's Amelia, captained by Hugh Crown, was the last British slaver to set sail from Liverpool.