Slavery Days

Though not as deeply enmired in the business as Bristol and Liverpool, the growth of Lancaster as a port in the eighteenth century did owe a lot to the slave trade, and this grisly part of the city's history is commemorated with the slavery memorial on St George's Quay.

If you find yourself with the spare time and inclination, it's worth reading up on the life of William Wilberforce, the great abolitionist who made it his life's work to eliminate slavery within the British Empire. Though Wilberforce was far from a universal champion of the downtrodden - he seemed to hate the English working class with astonishing venom, to the point of vocally defending the 1819 Peterloo massacre - he was sincere and committed to the abolitionist movement, and within the space of a few decades, turned the opinions of the majority of the British population against the slave trade and eventually had legislation passed against it. That's no mean feat considering that at the time, the slave trade was considered to be the powerhouse of the British economy and it was thought that outlawing it would leave the country at the mercy of the continental powers.

And while you're at it, you could listen to the classic Burning Spear song on the subject.