'If you scratch Liverpool it bleeds slavery'.

Sunday saw me going on a guided walk around a part of Liverpool that highlighted the extent of the slave trade on the city of Liverpool.

The walk was led by Laurence Westgaph a local historian, activist and writer who has worked for many years bringing to light the effect the slave trade has had on Liverpool.

We met at St.Georges steps and heard how the funding for the hall came from the cotton trade,

built on the slavery. Turning our backs to St.Georges Hall we saw Liverpool Limestreet Station opened in 1836 as part of the Liverpool to Manchester railway line to move cotton from the port of Liverpool to Manchester in order to get the raw materials to Manchester in a more timely manner than sending the cotton up the canals. We then moved to the Walker Art Gallery which has a superb collection of art work and has acknowledged that some of it's collections were brought together by those who owned plantations and  made their money from keeping enslaved people. We also heard told about William Roscoe the only MP to represent Liverpool who was a known abolitionist.

Laurence then took us outside for a conversation about the streets of Liverpool and pointed out that William Brown Street was named after a  merchant who gave money for the building of the Central Library and the Museum in Liverpool whose finances came from the cotton trade.

Finally, we finished in St.Johns Gardens, the site of the old Liverpool Cemetery. Laurence told us how the cemetery was a municipal graveyard and records from the 18th Century show the

burial of Black slaves and their families on the site.

The walk was eyeopening and brought home the influence of ill-gotten  wealth on the city. When pointed out it's easy to see how travel, art, civic buildings, roads and religion are all touched by the dark shadow of slavery.

I think one of the questions that his all raises for me is, where do we go from here? Liverpool seems to be coming to terms with it's history, it often acknowledges its art, buildings and wealth has come from the subjugation of human beings but is their more to do?

I think the city is a wonderful places and as we all reflect on our history we need to consider concrete ways that we can learn from the mistakes of the past. Answers on a postcard ........