*Sender*	Jan-Philipp Goslar	Back to Inbox
*Subject*	Liverpool as port	Back to Inbox

The name of the city can be traced back to 1207, when the place was declared city and port. Back then Liverpool was almost unimportant. In the middle of the 16^th century Liverpool didn’t even have more than 500 inhabitants. Even Chester, a small town nearby, was more important than Liverpool.

So what happened that made Liverpool important, wealthy and famous?

In 1691 Liverpool started to develop, becoming one of the world’s greatest seaports for over 200 years. Trade with the West Indies and involvement in slave trade increased Liverpool’s prosperity. One out of four ships leaving the port was a slave ship. By the beginning of the 19^th century about 40 % of the world trade passed Liverpool’s port.

It was also used as a world gateway: between 1830 and 1930 about forty million people left Europe. Nine million of them sailed from Liverpool, travelling mostly to North America, Australia and New Zealand. Today the port of Liverpool remains Britain’s largest west coast port.

Liverpool faces these parts of its history in the International Slavery Museum and the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

The Merseyside Maritime Museum

In the Merseyside Maritime Museum there are current and permanent expositions. On the 2^nd floor you can join the Magical History Tour. I takes place from Saturday, July 28, 2007 – Sunday, September 27, 2009. The exhibition charts Liverpool’s growth from a tiny fishing village to a busy port. It also traces the evolution of the settlement from its earliest pre-historic roots and examines life in the medieval and early modern town before the port’s appearance as a Victorian metropolis of global significance and importance. Another interesting exposition is Hello Sailor! Gay life on the ocean wave. It is open from Monday, September 24, 2007 – Sunday, January 18, 2009. The small exhibition takes a look at life of gay men at the sea in times when homosexuality was forbidden.

One of the permanent galleries is for example Lifelines gallery which can be found on the first floor. More information at www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/

The International Slavery Museum

The International Slavery Museum strengthens and highlights the international importance and awareness of slavery in historic and contemporary contexts. The museum contributes to a better and much greater understanding of freedom and enslavement and in connection with this it also indicates the value of non-slavery today.

All in all the International Slavery Museum has three main galleries based on three different themes. While the exhibition of Life in West Africa focuses on the story of the western part of Africa and its peoples, who are central to the story of transatlantic slavery, the exposition of Enslavement and the Middle Passage goes one step further: It bluntly exposes some of the brutality and trauma suffered by many enslaved Africans on their unintentional travel across the Atlantic ocean. Thereby the gallery also concentrates on the lives of slaves on the plantations in America – on their oppression, inflicted brutality and cruelty as well as experienced degradation.

Finally the gallery on Legacies of Slavery presents in detail the continuous struggle and commitment for freedom and equality; the contemporary impact of transatlantic slavery, such as racism and discrimination; and the achievements of the African Diaspora. More information at http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/

International Slavery Museum: Impressions

Both museums are situated in the same building in the area of the Albert Docks.

Part of the exhibition in the International Slavery Museum.

A video installation in the International Slavery Museum. A woman telling the story of her family.

Some words of African languages were taken over into the English language. At this station you could find out which of the words out of the song’s lyrics derived from an African language and what it meant originally.