Page 44 - washington state wine

It had taken just two hours for me to trade in the 18th century. From street The city recognizes this stained past
reach Liverpool aboard one of the fre- names to architecture, so much of the at the International Slavery Museum,
quent London departures offered by city's history is tied to human bondage where the theme is "setting the truth
Virgin Trains. That makes it possible to that putting it in the past is not an op- free." Over a period of 400 years, until
visit Liverpool as a day trip from London, tion. slavery was abolished, at least 12 million
although anyone who does that will be Africans were put to work on plantations
missing a lot. "The whole town was built on slavery," in the Americas.
said my cabbie, Trevor. "Right on the Pier
My knowledge of Liverpool had been Head, there's a place called the Goree. Liverpool's role in the slave trade was at
formed by the early Beatles of the 1960s That's the last bit of land the slaves saw its height in the mid-1700s, with ships
and "Ferry Cross the Mersey," the song when they left Africa." (Goree is an island from the port transporting 1.5 million
that is an ode to this city, sung by Gerry off the coast of Senegal.) Africans into slavery until the practice
and the Pacemakers. It is still played to- was abolished in Britain in 1807.
day aboard the three famous ferryboats Indeed, if you look closely at the friezes
that continue to make the short crossing on the exterior of Liverpool’s Town Hall, Although few slaves actually saw Liver-
across the Mersey from the central city built in 1795, you’ll see friezes of Afri- pool, the wealth brought from slavery
to the Wirral Peninsula. can faces, crocodiles, lions and elephants through shipping, textiles and agricul-
that symbolize Liverpool’s ties to the Af- tural products played a huge role in shap-
Liverpool carries a disturbing burden rican trade. ing today's city. Each year the museum
as the financial hub of the African slave sponsors a Slavery Remembrance Day

44 Wine Dine & Travel Summer/Fall 2015