glintandswirl t1_j6mrq0p wrote on January 31, 2023 at 1:07 PM

Reply to comment by MiniMunch in Today I learned the first overseas Consulate of the United States was in Liverpool, established in 1790! by Seahawk124

I’m not sure why you’re getting downvoted. It’s a fact. As was Bristol. The Slave trade is well documented in the Liverpool museum and there are a number of streets named after slave traders… Penny Lane the famous Beatles song is about a street widely believed to be named after slave trader James Penny. Source I live in Liverpool.

MiniMunch t1_j6mxb61 wrote on January 31, 2023 at 1:54 PM

Yeah we literally do a whole section on it at my university in Liverpool. I think people would rather believe we don’t have such a horrible past. We had a lot of foreign legions go to fight on the confederate side in the American civil war also.

BannedNeutrophil t1_j6nch3u wrote on January 31, 2023 at 3:40 PM

It's not just a part of the Liverpool museum; we have the entire International Slavery Museum. It's a hard fact for any proud Liverpudlian to truly come to terms with, but some parts of our city's grandest histories were built with the blood of Africans.

Thankfully, the Penny Lane thing was disproven a few years ago. Although there are other streets in the area named after slavers, Penny Lane is now not thought to be one of them.

Liverpool was so involved with the American slave trade that the last official act of the Confederacy was the surrender of the CSS Shenandoah at our town hall. It was thought to be the friendliest place they could turn.

We are not proud of this aspect of our history.