It's widely accepted by my friends and family that I am not a morning person. The most my brain can cope with before 9.30am is managing to remember my sandwich for lunch, and until this morning I was quite happy with my brain capacity.

However this was before I met the most energetic early-morning people ever. Russell Sargeant and Claude Martin Currie are members of dance company The Jiving Lindy Hoppers who will be performing at the Strictly Come Dancing with the Jiving Lindy Hoppers event on Friday 30 October from 7-11pm at the Maritime Dining Rooms (4th floor of the Merseyside Maritime Museum).

I had asked Russell and Claude to have their picture taken this morning by a photographer from the Daily Post & Echo to go into the paper. They were such good sports, getting changed into costume and dancing infront of the anchor all before I’m sure their breakfast had even digested!

Judging from the effort they put into having their picture taken I can be sure that this Friday is sure to be just as exhilarating and fun! What better way to spend a Friday evening than listening to live music, enjoying the wonderful dance of the Lindy Hop, and all in a restaurant with amazing views of the Albert Dock.

To book your tickets for this free event please e-mail bookingsmmm@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk or call 0151 478 4441

Claude Martin Currie (left) and Russell Sargeant have their picture taken while they dance the Lindy Hop

We're pleased to report that we've been shortlisted for yet another award, and again we need your help to win. The nomination is for our Engaging Refugees and Asylum Seekers programme and recognises our efforts to help people for the benefit of the whole community and generally change society for the better.

There's more on the awards themselves, the DSC Social Change Awards, and details of how to enter on the award website. Voting closes on 6 November with the winners announced on 26 November. Vote for us now!!!

I find graveyards and cemeteries fascinating places not only on a spiritual level but also as sources of stories – each stone bears testimony to lives, some detailed, some obscure.

While looking around Childwall’s ancient yard in Liverpool recently I stumbled across memorials to the Okill family. These were principled people because John Okill &Co were the only Africa merchants in Liverpool not engaged in the slave trade.

The impact of the slave trade on Africa was profound as it blighted progress in all aspects of life on the continent for many generations.

The transatlantic slave trade operated for almost 400 years, fuelled by Europe’s almost insatiable desire for sugar, cotton, tobacco and other products of the New World which were then regarded as luxuries.

Liverpool ships were a key part of the trade and the town became Europe’s leading slaving port in the second half of the 18th century.

At least 12 million Africans were forcibly transported by Britain and other countries but many millions more were profoundly affected. The transatlantic slave trade destroyed African societies, robbing them of young people.

A staggering two-thirds of enslaved people were young men aged between 15 and 25. They were in huge demand to work the booming plantations producing ever-growing quantities of crops.

Arms and ammunition brought to Africa by European traders helped perpetrate conflict and political instability.

Displays at the International Slavery Museum, in the Merseyside Maritime Museum building, focus on the consequences of the trade on Africa.

Successful trade routes that existed before European intervention were disrupted. The development of African communities and cultures was severely stunted. Agriculture suffered as communities abandoned fertile land as they fled the long reach of the European slavers.

The labour and inventiveness of enslaved peoples shaped the Americas and enriched Western European, rather than their African homelands.

Ships on the Niger expedition. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

On display is a lithograph featuring ships on the 1841 Niger Expedition (pictured). Thomas Fowell Buxton was leader of the British anti-slavery movement in the post-slave trade era.

He urged the British government to make treaties with African leaders to abolish the slave trade. The expedition went to the Niger River delta to set up a headquarters and began negotiations. The party suffered so many deaths from disease that they had to return home.

There is a half model of the Balmore, bought by John Holt & Co in 1908. The Holt family was involved in the West Africa trade from the 1860s.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1.50 p&p UK).

Saturday’s Carnegie Challenge Cup is certainly going to be different. For the first time since the 1986 final between Castleford and Hull, none of the ‘big four’ - Leeds, Bradford, Wigan and  St Helens - will be going Wembley. That privilege will be enjoyed instead by Huddersfield Giants and Warrington Wolves along with coach loads of their thirsty fans. 

Ellery Hanley - a rugby league legend. Photograph by John Ferguson ©

I, for one, am relieved. Not only is it great for the game to share the silverware but we also have a family wedding on Saturday and a congregation made up of Wigan and Saints fans who would no doubt spend the day with their eyes on the score instead of the bride (and I include the groom in that). So hats off to Huddersfield, and the best of luck to Warrington who will be flying the rugby league flag for the region – it’s going to be a rip-roarer!

Anyone involved in the game of rugby league knows what an exciting and entertaining spectacle it can be and is always on the look out for ways to spread the magic. That’s why I am thrilled to see the formidable Ellery Hanley represented in John Ferguson’s photography exhibition ‘Black Britannia’ at the International Slavery Museum. The exhibition features portraits of Black Britons who have contributed to British culture and whose achievements can provide a positive role mode for many Black British youngsters today - and what an inspiration Ellery has been in his field.

Ellery played phenomenal top flight rugby at Bradford, Leeds and most notably for Wigan during the peak of their success, as well as for Balmain and Western Suburbs in Australia. Over the course of his career he was capped 34 times for Great Britain and became Britain’s first Black coach in 1994. In 1999 he also coached the Saints to Super League victory.  His accolades include the Rugby League World Golden Boot Award, Man of Steel, the Lance Todd Trophy, an MBE for services to rugby league and induction into the Rugby League Hall of Fame.

When it comes to rugby league Ellery Hanley certainly set the standard. If Warrington and Huddersfield need any inspiration for the weekend’s big clash, then this picture will surely provide it. 

 Dr. Richard Benjamin and Greg Roberts

We received a VIP visit to the International Slavery Museum yesterday. Greg Roberts, president and chief executive officer of the Muhammad Ali Centre in Louisville, Kentucky dropped by and was given a tour of the museum by Dr. Richard Benjamin.

The museum recently reached the finals of the National Lottery Awards. Voting has now closed but we are keeping everything crossed that we will be successful when the winners are announced on 5 September.

As you may know, this weekend sees the Slavery Remembrance Day festival - there's more on the background to the event on our main website. A good number of the weekend's events are supported with British Sign Language, including Diane Nash's lecture. There's a good mix of activities, dramatisations, discussions, lectures and performances. A full list of the supported events can be found on our BSL interpretation events page.

Voting in the National Lottery awards closes at midday today so we REALLY need you to vote if you've not done so already. You can vote online on the National Lottery Good Causes website, or by calling 0844 686 6957.

And 'thank you' if you have already!

The International Slavery Museum

The momentum is really building now for the International Slavery Museum and our bid to win Best Heritage Project in the National Lottery Awards - which we still need your votes for! This week the head of the museum, Richard Benjamin, was interviewed on BBC Radio Merseyside about why the museum should win the award and also talking about the latest exhibition; 'Black Brittania'.

You can hear Richard's interview on the Claire Hamilton show here - listen from the 6pm mark onwards!

Excellent news. Thanks to your votes the International Slavery Museum has made it through to the finals of the National Lottery awards. We're up against two other venues in the Best Heritage Project category.

Votes aren't carried over into the final so we need you to vote again. You can vote online on the National Lottery Good Causes website. Alternatively you can call 0844 686 6957 to register your phone vote.

As we've said before this isn't just about winning an award (although obviously that's a nice thing) or a thumbs up for a good museum. As Richard said in his 'It could be us' post a few weeks ago, this is a major opportunity to raise awareness about the issues that the museum champions - it's about tackling human rights abuses. So, please vote, and ask people you know to vote as well.

Then tune into the National Lottery programme (we'll let you know when) to see Richard in his fabled Homer Simpson tie!

Photograph from 'Shoot Nations'.

Quick reminder that Sunday 2 August is your last chance to see the Shoot Nations exhibition at the International Slavery Museum. The display features photographs by young people, highlighting the global impact of our changing environment, particularly the effects of global warming and intensive farming on the earth's natural resources.

While there you could also catch our latest display which opens today. Trafficked looks at a form of modern slavery - human trafficking - and follows the stories of those affected by the trade. 

There's less than a day to go now so I thought I'd take the opportunity to remind you to please vote for the International Slavery Museum in the National Lottery Awards before noon tomorrow.

There are lots of reasons to vote for this fantastic and groundbreaking venue, many of which were outlined by the head of the museum Richard Benjamin in his latest blog post. You only have to look at a few of the comment cards from the museum's visitors to see how the incredibly moving and poignant stories told within the galleries have affected people.

Further proof of the museum's importance and value is the standard of international speakers that it attracts. For example, US civil rights activist Diane Nash will be giving this year's Slavery Remembrance Day memorial lecture on Friday 21 August.

If you can't wait until then, Benjamin Nicholas Lawrance, the assistant professor of African history from the University of California, Davis will be giving a free lecture in the museum this Monday, 13 July, at 12 noon. Entitled 'All we want is make us free?' the lecture will look at the voyage of Amistad's children through the worlds of the illegal slave trade. Here is his synopsis of what he will be talking about:

"In Steven Spielberg's 1997 dramatization of the infamous US Supreme Court trial of the occupants of the Spanish-Cuban slave ship Amistad, Cinqué, the African leader of the survivors, in a trance-like state, stands up, faces the judge, and begins chanting "Give us, us free!" It is a powerful and deeply persuasive testament to man's inhumanity to man and an unmistakable and universalizing call to correct past injustice.

It is also a complete and utter fabrication. Not only was Cinqué (a European rendering of the Mende Singbe Pieh) imprisoned in New Haven and thus not present in the courtroom, but the utterance itself is a corruption of the penultimate line of a letter penned by Ka-Le, one of four child captives from the Amistad, to former President John Quincy Adams. Film critics and historians have rightly rounded on the spurious ethnic formulations deployed with such great dramatic effect in the prison.  As if to anticipate an onslaught of criticism, Steven Spielberg claimed to be telling "everyone's story."  Notwithstanding the absence of "African agency," as Robert Harms points out, it is quite "unfortunate that the Africanness of the Amistad captives is shown largely through untranslated utterances and stereotyped inter-tribal conflict."

But a second, and I would venture more deleterious silencing is also enjoined in this scene, that of the voices of the four African child captives aboard the slave ship, and of Ka-le in particular. A number of kidnapped children were on board the Tecora when it sailed from Sierra Leone in 1838-9. After arriving in Cuba, where many of the slaves were sold, a group were boarded on the Amistad and set sail for another port town. Included in this group were at least five children, and the ship's crew included at least one. The status of these five children featured prominently in the trial of the Amistad captives. Among other matters, there were separate habeas corpus hearings for the three girls involved, and a separate ruling regarding ownership of the ship's cabin boy and slave, Antonio. Four African children returned to West Africa aboard the Gentleman in the Fall of 1841. And one of these, a girl called Mar-gru, subsequently returned to the U.S. and graduate from Oberlin College.

In this lecture I would like to reconsider historical evidence from the famous trial of the men and women found on board the Cuban-Spanish ship La Amistad. Documents from this unlikely and well-trodden source provide a rare window into the historical contexts of child smuggling in the nineteenth century. They also serve as a vehicle for helping historians navigate the complicated legal terrain of child slaves lives."

Just looking at this plan of a slave ship hold almost makes me break out into a cold sweat.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I have a strong aversion to crowded enclosed spaces. This print of 1789 brings home to us all the hideous nature of the slave trade.

Liverpool’s slave ships carried their human cargoes from West Africa over the Atlantic to the Americas and Caribbean on journeys that took six weeks or more. The Africans were held in atrocious and dehumanising conditions – violence, terror and degradation were everyday occurrences.

They had already suffered terrible hardship before reaching the coast. Sometimes the slaves were forced to march hundreds of miles from the interior of Africa. Sold several times over, they passed from one owner to another, their sense of disorientation and dread increasing with each sale. However, the prisoners took every opportunity to escape. One group of women tracked their husbands for several days before breaking them free.

Some African leaders were actively involved in the trade but others took a stand against slavery. They included Tomba, leader of the Baga in Guineas and Agaja Trudo, king of Dahomey.

The slaves’ final destinations on land were forts and places such as the island of Goree where they were held before boarding ships. The message to potential escapers was clear – skeletons of those who tried to make a run for it were impaled on spikes as gruesome warnings.

The horrors of the Middle Passage, as it was known, were made worse because many of the captives had never seen the sea. They were packed into unbelieveably hot, cramped and suffocating conditions in the holds. The men were kept separated from the women and children. In good weather they were brought on deck.

The men were humiliated and forced to ‘dance’ for the crew. This also have an ulterior motive – to keep the slaves fit and healthy so they would fetch higher prices. Women were abused by crew members and rape was common.

The physical conditions, fear and uncertainty left many of the captives totally traumatised and unable to eat. Some preferred death and took their own lives. Disease and brutality took their tolls. Between one tenth and one quarter of enslaved Africans died on every journey. Mortality among crew members was also high.

At the International Slavery Museum, in the Merseyside Maritime Museum building, there are displays which explore slave voyages including a model and painting of slave ships.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1.50 p&p UK).

I cannot apologize for what has happened in the past - But I can do my best to never let it happen again.

It's always interesting and sometimes extremely moving to read the comment books and cards in our venues and get direct feedback from visitors. Some of the comments cards that I noticed in the International Slavery Museum this week for example have been extremely poignant and are a testament to the power of the incredible real life stories told within the museum's walls.

You can read a small selection in our visitor comment card set on Flickr.

Black achievers plaque unveiling

Hello there

Well before anyone sends me an accusatory email I will admit I am not the world's best blogger! Strange really considering I constantly annoy my colleagues by saying "That would be a great blog picture" or "I can blog this and that" etc.  So I am back and hopefully once again people will read my blog to support my rather bold claim that this is one of the most visited parts of the National Museums Liverpool website. I can hear the laughter coming from the web team office! 

Ok, so what has happened since I was last in cyberspace? Well one very successful event at the museum was the US Black History Month event on 17 February called From Lincoln to Obama: a look at the progress of civil rights. As well as a number of noted speakers such as Simon Woolley from Operation Black Vote and Wally Brown, the ex principle of Liverpool Community College, three new Black Achievers plaques were unveiled. Most notable was President Obama, a very popular choice and someone who rightly deserves his position on the wall. Equally deserving though are the two achievers flanking him - the Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer  and Dr Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space. 

As people have rightly pointed out there are thousands upon thousands of people who are achievers and who deserve a place on the Black Achievers Wall but we are receptive to any ideas so send your nominations in. As an insight to how the International Slavery Museum team often works our logic on this occasion was the connection between the three of them. The pioneering work Fannie Lou Hamer carried out on voting rights and the fact that Dr Jemison literally reached for the stars. This echoed Obama's words at a recent rally where he said "The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term, but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there". Sentiments that people believed in and as a result voted in their millions.

I have also given several presentations recently. The first was at the Exhibiting Slavery:  Problematics & Possibilities conference at the Horniman Museum in London in early March. The conference looked at the legacies of the 2007 commemorations and the unprecedented interest in, and exploration of, the meaning of slavery in our contemporary moment. My paper focused on the issues involved in developing future strategies and programming for the museum such as a contemporary collecting policy and contemporary slavery educational resources whilst not ignoring transatlantic slavery and keeping repeat visitors, new audiences and interested parties alike, informed, interested and engaged.  

The audience of museum professionals, interested members of the public and some leading academics in the field were pretty receptive to my ideas. That said, the majority were from London institutions and it is not unusual for people to assume that London is indeed the centre of all major and significant advances in the cultural sector. This is not the case and although I do not get defensive I truly believe people need to be told in no uncertain terms that there is quite a bit going on up North! One example was when a member of the audience who I had never met before but who claimed that the International Slavery Museum would fudge the big issues; and would not dare to look at issues which central government might find uncomfortable. Neither I or members of the team are mavericks, we do not aim to simply shock or be controversial but equally we have strong values and a sense of purpose. I explained this to them and to be fair they acknowledged that their earlier statement was in fact unfounded on this occasion.

The other presentation took place at the University of Manchester to a group if students on the Manchester Leadership Programme on the subject of leadership and culture. Basically, how I deal with various challenges within the cultural sector. The vast majority of the hundred plus students had not visited the International Slavery Museum or indeed had much understanding of the subject. I also had the feeling that they expected a museum professional to turn up with cobwebs hanging off them! They might have been pleasantly surprised then (or shocked) when someone stood in front of them who spoke with a Yorkshire accent and announced that he would pick on someone to ask a question if they were too shy to do so!

Not sure I will blog again until the end of April as I am on leave for a few weeks. I am going to Japan, and even though it is not a work trip as such I am sure I will not be able to resist popping into a few museums. I'll update you on my return.  

Sayonara for now.

A street trader at St George's Dock, Liverpool in 1895. Courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

When I was young, slavery was rarely mentioned either at home or in school – it was rather a taboo subject. Grown-ups would point out parts of Liverpool, saying things like “That’s where the slaves were sold”. In reality very few enslaved Africans were sold in the port although merchants, traders and ship owners grew rich on the trade.

Liverpool was the leading European slave trade port in the later decades of the 18th century and people of African descent were living in the town from at least that time. A number of merchants brought slaves from the West Indies to work as servants in their homes.

Some African chiefs sent their sons to be educated in Britain. In the 1790s more than 50 of these children were at school in Liverpool.

With the development of the palm oil business after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, African seafarers were increasingly employed to crew the ships. Many of these seafarers settled on the outskirts of the town in the area now known as Liverpool 8.

There were significant numbers of Black people in Britain in the 18th century. By 1800 London may have had a Black population of around 10,000. Although they had a variety of jobs including serving as soldiers and sailors, most were domestic servants to the rich.

This is illustrated on a coffee pot among the displays at the International Slavery Museum in the Merseyside Maritime Museum building. Other exhibits include a print showing a dock and sailing ships which also features the first known images of Black people in Liverpool – two youngsters near the dock side.

An 1895 photograph, shown here, taken by Charles Frederick Inston, shows a Black street trader at St George’s Dock. An item from a 1756 edition of Williamsons Liverpool Advertiser announces  the sale in a shop of “three negro men, two negro women, two negro boys and one negro girl” along with quantities of raisin wine, cider and flour.

A notice of the sale of “11 negroes” at the town’s Exchange Coffee House appeared in the same newspaper in 1766. For wealthy English families, a servant was an asset to be shown off as evidence of wealth and status. These notices show how enslaved Africans were part of the consumerism of the time. Africans were exotic accessories and would often be exquisitely dressed to reflect the riches of their masters.This hid the reality that Black servants were often brutalised in their daily lives.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1.50 p&p UK).

We've just published a cute little pocket guide to many of the fab happenings at NML in 2008. It's good to revisit highlights like Ben Johnson's residency, the Superlambananas, the opening of Seized! and exhibitions like Art In The Age of Steam and The Beat Goes On.

You can download your copy of The Little Book of Big Highlights here (pdf 6mb).

The metal rings in the huge walls took on a menacing aspect when my father pointed to them with the chilling words: “The slaves were chained to those before being sold”. This was the Goree warehouse near the Liverpool waterfront. I was little more than a toddler when we would explore its colonnades with the sinister rings. Later I learnt that the rings were probably for tying up horses rather than people and that comparatively few enslaved Africans came to Liverpool.

However, Liverpool was the European capital of the slave trade from the 1780s to British abolition in 1807. Mersey ships transported nearly 1.5 million Africans into slavery – more than 10% of all known slaves transported by Europeans to the Americas and Caribbean.

Liverpool was not involved in early English slaving. Merchants from London and Bristol were the first to be involved but from the 1740s Liverpool had overtaken them. Liverpool merchants were sharp and successfully undercut their rivals’ costs, reduced turnaround times and increased the flexibility of operations.

Trade goods on display at the International Slavery Museum, in the Merseyside Maritime Museum building, include horseshoe-shaped pieces of metal known as manillas. They were used as a source of metal for casting in Africa and also as currency, particularly on the Niger delta.

Colourful trade beads, like those shown here, were imported mainly from Venice, Prague and Silesia (Germany) and were much in demand for necklaces and bracelets. Among those displayed is a string of agate beads recovered from the wreck of a ship which sank off the Isles of Scilly.

Preparing a ship for a slave voyage was complex and expensive. Vessels had to be equipped and loaded with goods carefully chosen to appeal to African traders. Ships were usually fitted out by a single merchant on behalf of the owners – fellow merchants, bankers, politicians, landowners and other investors. The average cost of sending out a ship in 1790 was the colossal sum of about £10,000 – roughly £550,000 in today’s money.

Goods to buy enslaved Africans were selected to appeal to particular African traders. The trade was conducted formally at forts on the African coast run by Europeans. There were two such forts on the island of Goree, south of Cape Verde, West Africa. It gave its name to the huge vanished Liverpool warehouse still commemorated by a stretch of road called Goree which runs parallel to The Strand.

Elsewhere captains negotiated directly with Africans and generally had to pay customs and dues for trading rights. There's more on the history of slave trading on our main site.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1.50 p&p UK).

A picture of the Lincoln Memorial from my trip to Washington DC last year

Hello there.

Well unless you have been living on another planet recently who could not have been gripped by the momentous events when Barack Hussein Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States. First he is a loving father, a skilled politician, an inspirational leader and role model, who is married to a strong successful and supportive partner, he also happens to be the first African American President. A truly great achievement, especially in a nation that less than 60 years ago had separate seating on buses - white people who boarded the bus took seats in the front rows, whereas Black people who boarded the bus had to sit on the back rows (a certain Rosa Parks disagreed) and where the Jim Crow Laws were in place which segregated everything from schools to public parks and transportation, with a "separate but equal" status for Black Americans.

I could go on, but I think you get the message. As a result unsurprisingly, many people have suggested President Obama go on our Black Achievers Wall and I am sure that he will once we add new achievers to that exhibit. As a museum we are actively collecting Obama related material for our own collections: ranging from campaign badges to a plethora of magazines and newspaper articles. We are planning to have some of this material on display at the first ever US Black History Month event we are holding on 17 February called 'From Lincoln to Obama: a look at the progress of civil rights'.  We have a number of noted speakers such as Simon Woolley from Operation Black Vote and Wally Brown, the ex-principle of Liverpool Community College. See our website for full details.  

Most people in the UK associate Black History Month with October but it actually developed out of BHM events in the US in February founded by Dr Carter G Woodson, a great historian, author and educator. In 1926 Woodson pioneered a week long celebration of African American history and culture, the second week in February, to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. The week of celebration eventually became Black History Month.

It is a particularly good time to visit the museum as we have two exhibitions to see, Shoot Nations and My Life, My Words, opening on Monday, which explores the lives and experiences of people from Liverpool's Black communities and their relationships with the ever-changing city. We had a visitor from the US looking around earlier today and they were blown away at just how much information we have on various aspects of slavery as well as thinking both exhibitions were very interesting and visually stimulating. I have shown many people around the museum but it does not matter how many times I walk through it I always find something to look at or listen to in a new way. Most of the time I am sure people think I am just a visitor like them but I always have an eye on how they react to an exhibit or display, that is my job!

Bye for now. 

Hello there
Well what a momentous year for the museum it has been.   Where shall I start?  Well how about the fact we have had over 500,000 visitors since we opened, which makes us one of the most visited museums outside of London in a very short space of time.  We launched our exhibitions programme with 'We are one' that celebrated and reflected on the International Slavery Museum's first year and were visited by well known personalities and advocates such as the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the footballer Lillian Thuram, Doreen Lawrence, Floella Benjamin and the noted academic Eric Foner and a host of other dignitaries.   The year continued as it had finished in 2007 with a high level of media interest from around the world.  Probably the most high profile was a live link from the museum for the Today Show which has over 6 million viewers.  I was interviewed by Al Roker for several minutes so no pressure then!  Thankfully I did not make any gaffs.

Me being interviewed for the Today Show

The museum has been the site of several pilgrimages and has had first time visits from citizens from a plethora of countries from around the world; in particular those from the Diaspora. Not only did many visitors want to visit a museum which focused on one of humanities most heinous acts, transatlantic slavery, but which actively campaigns against contemporary forms of injustice, discrimination and racism.  From the feedback I have personally received, from the thousands of responses left in our response zone area, and the support and interest we have had from some of the leading human rights organisations, we are living up to that objective.

It has also been a year which has had a number of personal high points.  I have been able to attended conferences from Atlanta to Belfast and my personal highlight was the Commonwealth Association of Museums conference in Georgetown, Guyana - the country of my father’s birth.   It is always a pleasure visiting Guyana, a country with unparalleled natural beauty and a rich history but to visit in my capacity as Head of the museum was a very proud moment for me and my family.   In fact, if I had to chose a moment of the year then I would say it was climbing (ok, walking very slowly) up to the peak of Turtle Mountain and overlooking the mighty Essequibo River in the heart of the Guyanese rainforest. 

The museum was also shortlisted for a number of awards which on several occasions we narrowly missed out on.   My own view is that the museum world was not quite ready for a museum which makes such bold statements, being an active and vocal campaigner, challenging contemporary issues.  In time, maybe people will acknowledge this rather than steer away from it.  We are still to hear if we have been successful in being named the European Museum of the Year. The judges who visited were impressed with what we are doing so hopefully 2009 will start with the museum receiving such an accolade.

For those of you who may have visited the museum I look forward to your continued support and hope that those of you who have not feel that 2009 is the year to come to Liverpool and visit the International Slavery Museum.  Liverpool might not officially be the Capital of Culture in 2009 but it is a city rich with culture and cultural institutions on par with any city in the country, London included. 

We are now actively planning the next stage of the International Slavery Museum – a world class educational and research centre located in the Dock Traffic Office adjacent to the current galleries.  We plan to open in 2011 and it will take the museum to a new level.  At times it can be a very challenging job but I would not want to work on any other project.  One that in my view can change the world in which we live.

Bye for now and happy holidays.

Lilian Thuram (on the left) – the most capped French footballer ever - on a visit to the International Slavery Museum

Hello there.

Well for those of you who are regular followers of my blog (surely double figures?) then you will know I have a penchant for the beautiful game. We were fortunate enough to be visited last week by the great French defender and World Cup winner Lilian Thuram who was in Liverpool as a patron of the Only a Game? exhibition at World Museum Liverpool.

Lilian is now retried from football but he is looking to start an origanisation which tackles issues such as racism and discrimination in Europe. As a result he wanted to come to the International Slavery Museum to look at some of exhibits which focus on this subject as well as talk about the possibility of some sort of collaboration. Lilian was particularly impressed with our Black Achievers Wall. A message he thinks is important to get across to children of African descent across Europe. 

Some of my colleagues had a good laugh at the attached picture. I have to admit myself it is not difficult to spot the famous footballer and the museum professional. Maybe if I had not smiled quite as much and looked all excited it would have been harder to choose! Sad as it might seem, after the tour and our official discussions, I could not resist asking him to come out of retirement to play a few games for my own team (Leeds United for those who don’t already know). He smiled and asked what league we were now in? He genuinely looked surprised when I told him it was the third tier of the English league. Well, if you don’t ask you don’t get as they say.

I also recently gave a talk to the Merseyside Archaeological Society one evening. I knew the organiser from my days as a PhD student at the University of Liverpool so it was good to catch up. It was held in the Friends Meeting House in Liverpool. This is particularly interesting because of the relationship between Quakers and the abolition movement. Now by no means were all Quakers always against slavery, many owned slaves themselves in the 17th and 18th centuries in particular. That said, when the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed in 1787 with William Wilberforce as its parliamentary spokesperson, several of the founding members were in fact Quakers.

I am also very excited at the prospect of flying to Atlanta, Georgia, later this week, to attend the launch of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database at Emory University. I have been invited to be a panel member which will discuss some of the ways the database can be used. The database has information about almost 35,000 slave voyages and will be an essential tool for research in my opinion. Whilst there I hope to be able to visit a number of institutions and historic sites connected to Martin Luther King Jr, who was born in Atlanta. In particular the King Center and his birthplace.

I will update you on my return.
 
Bye for now.

Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

Looking at this masterly portrait, I have to admit a certain liking for Captain Hugh Crow.

He was very much a man of his time and did what he did efficiently and well despite condemnation in his own day and now. Of course he was wrong in his actions and, with all his charm, personified the end of an evil era.

Captain Crow stands wearing his top hat and clutching a cutlass, sporting a billowing white linen shirt and blue trousers with matching necktie – a man at ease in retirement. At his feet are other relics of his prime - a pistol and a megaphone used for enforcing orders on a sailing ship ploughing across the ocean.These are subtle clues to the former occupation of this distinguished-looking man in a finely-observed watercolour portrait painted by A R Burt in 1820. 

Captain Crow was the last of the slavers.

The picture is among exhibits at the International Slavery Museum in the Merseyside Maritime Museum building.

Crow (1765 – 1829) is best known as the captain of Kitty’s Amelia, the last British slave ship cleared for sailing from Liverpool in July 1807 just before the trade was outlawed. Crow was master on six other slaving voyages. On retiring from the sea he wrote his memoirs – an engaging, rare first-hand account. He remained a staunch supporter of the slave trade.

Crow claimed he treated both the crew and enslaved Africans on his ships comparatively well. However, like other ships’ masters, it was in his interests to keep the captives healthy so they would fetch a better price. The voyage of the Kitty’s Amelia was eventful – she caught fire and they also rescued the crew of another ship that had been wrecked.

Another exhibit is the original account book of the Liverpool slave ship Enterprize for a voyage in 1794-5. The accounts reveal that the ship’s carpenter Daniel Small was perhaps considered the most important person on the ship – he was paid £5 10s (£5.50) per month. He could save the wooden ship if she sprang a leak or was damaged. Surprisingly, the captain, William Young, was paid less - £5 a month. However, a captain was entitled to commission on slaves he sold plus one or two privilege slaves he could sell himself. This was probably worth up to an additional £200 per voyage.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1.50 p&p UK).

Just seen a Black history interactive on the Guardian site that's worth a look. It's a timeline that runs from AD43 and the arrival at Hadrian's Wall of an African auxiliary unit from the Roman Army, to Barack Obama securing the Democrat's nomination. There are also links to Guardian articles of relevance and a guide to key Black figures - not unlike our own Black Achievers Wall at the International Slavery Museum. Have a look. It's been produced to coincide with October being Black History Month - we've a full schedule of events to link in as well.

Looking pensive at the Biennial!

Hello there. Well today I am going to speak about interpretation and art (bear with me here). There were many difficult decisions taken whilst planning the International Slavery Museum, some on the design of the building, the way we displayed exhibits and indeed the content. It was challenging but at the same time exciting and satisfying to think you can shape such an important project.

I believe that on the whole we made the right decisions when planning the International Slavery Museum. I also agree with people who contact me about the content, and say that there is room for expansion in some areas as well as the need for myself, and my team, to be receptive to new information, and indeed revise information due to new research or new methods of interpretation. Interpretation is big news in the museum world. The forthcoming Museums Association Conference will be laden with it.

Interpretation in museums was something I covered when I studied Archaeological Theory at the University of Liverpool (the word theory often made some of the undergrads recoil in horror) focusing on how communities engaged with their local and national heritage and indeed how they viewed and interpreted the past. As part of my research I spent many hours in the former Transatlantic Slavery Gallery. In fact I sent the odd enquiry about certain exhibits to people who are now my colleagues.

As well as working with Black communities here in the UK I also spent time in the United States focusing on the way African American communities engaged with local archaeological projects. From New York, where I visited the African Burial Ground to Ransom Place in Indianapolis. I also went over to Nevada which meant I spent three days on the California Zephyr. A great way to see the country and meet some characters. There is no substitute from visiting somewhere so that you can experience it for yourself.

So here is the arty bit! My artistic side was awakened this weekend when I went to see some of the installations which are part of the Liverpool Biennial. I live in the city centre and whilst walking past what I thought was a derelict warehouse I saw a carousel, yes, I did say carousel. I like to think of myself as an art aficionado (no laughing please) so I went to take a look inside. I ended up signing a waiver to have a quick ride on it! It was the work of an Argentinean artist which was ‘an artistic question about the constancy of everyday life’. Just what I thought (honest) whilst sitting in an armchair, going round on a carousel in a warehouse. There were a number of other installations too. I was particularly taken by the margarine tubs. I love the idea of art being open to the masses so have a look round the city; you never know what you will stumble across.

Bye for now.

Don't forget that if you haven't sent in nominations yet for the 4th annual Black History Month Achievers Awards then today is your last chance to do so - you can either drop a form in or email it to the organisers, the Merseyside Black History Month Group.

Full details, downloadable nomination forms and the address to send them to are in the Black History Month section of the International Slavery Museum website (and please don't forget your favourite venue when filling out the form!)

Full details of the events programme for this year's Black History Month at our venues will be available on the website next week.

Me being interviewed on the gallery

Hello there

Well I hope that many of you got to attend Slavery Remembrance Day this year.  Once again it was a very poignant day but at the same time it had many positive and inspirational moments.   There were various performances which took place at the main event site at Otterspool which highlighted the rich African cultures that have influenced so many aspects of life around the world.   Earlier in the day there had been a multi faith act of reflection at St Nicholas Church and on the Thursday the poet and actor Lemn Sissay gave the annual Slavery Remembrance Day lecture at the Town Hall.

Last week really was a particularly busy one.  Not only did we have the Slavery Remembrance events but the 23 August marked the first anniversary of the opening of the International Slavery museum.   And what a year it has been!  Over 300, 000 visitors, international recognition, massive media exposure and a rich array of high profile visitors such as Harry Belafonte; Jesse Jackson and Paul Robeson Jr to name a few.  To mark the occasion we launched We Are One, an exhibition of celebration and reflection.  If you have not managed to visit the museum yet then now is the time to come. The exhibition will be in the museum until January 09.

The 28th was a particularly exciting day as we welcomed the US NBC Today Show  programme as they were broadcasting live from the museum.  The Today Show has over 6 million viewers so it is great exposure for us in the US.   I was interviewed by Al Roker, TODAY anchor and weatherman.  He had been carrying out some research on his family heritage which was part Bahamian and he wanted to visit Liverpool as it was central to the transatlantic slave trade. I even contacted my family members in Guyana and Canada just in case they could tune into the show. You can watch the interview on the msnbc website (right after the advert for a certain food chain).

Even though I have done quite a bit of media since I stared this job (I was on the Dean Sullivan aka Jimmy Corkhill radio show last week!) I have only done one other live TV programme for a local station, not one seen by so many viewers.  Come to think of it, in the opening week of the museum last year I was interviewed for RAI TV in Italy which was apparently dubbed. The kind of embarrassing moment I expect to see on You Tube one day! 

There were quite a few members of the public watching today as the interview took place right in the centre of the museum, it was pretty chaotic but people seemed to find it interesting.   With such a commotion going on I am sure they expected to see someone famous rather than me although there was a round of applause when we finished!

Bye for now. 

Left to right: Jim Moore, Richard Benjamin, Warren Perry and Bob Paynter

Hello there.

Well I visited Ireland for the second time this year but this time the South, Dublin to be precise. It was for WAC-6  which I know sounds like a 60s TV space drama but it is in fact the World Archaeological Congress. In fact come to think of it some of you might be wishing I was now going to talk about a 60s TV space drama! If not, keep reading. 

Now at first you might be thinking what is the connection between archaeology and museums? Well in the case of the International Slavery Museum we believe that archaeological research can help us further understand what life might have been like on some of the many plantations in the Americas. For instance within the Enslavement and Middle Passage Gallery we have a replica of a plantation in St Kitts where Dr Rob Philpott, Head of Archaeology here at NML has carried out fieldwork for a number of years.

I was part of a session on 'Archaeologists, Museums, Monuments and Anti-Monuments' (academics love long titles!) which I co organised with some old friends from the US, Professor Bob Paynter from UMASS and Dr Warren Perry from CCSU. I met Bob and Warren in 2002 when I was researching for my PhD in Archaeology. Bob has worked on the WEB Du Bois boyhood site for a number of years. Du Bois was a major figure who wrote The Souls of Black Folk a classic work of American literature and is quite rightly on our Black Achievers Wall. I visited a number of African American archaeological sites when I was over there; including the African Burial Ground in New York City which Warren worked on as did another session participant Michael Blakey.

I have to say that the session went really well (no heckling or people falling asleep is a good start in my book) and included some fascinating papers. One was given by Daryle Rigney, Yunggorendi First Nations Centre, Flinders University with the interesting title - 'Encountering the Common Knobby Club Rush: reconciliation, public art and whiteness'. For those of you like me who are not experts on Australian plant life a knobby club rush is a plant which grows along the coastline and was used in the paper to symbolize how indigenous cultures, like this resilient plant, did not break under the force of the prevailing wind, in this case represented by European settlers and their early encounters with the indigenous population, in an already occupied land. Truly fascinating. Another interesting few days in a consistently interesting job.

There's just a few days left to submit your application for one of the 10 Creative Apprenticeships on offer. A number of Merseyside-based cultural organisations, including National Museums Liverpool, are involved in a project to foster emerging talent and give young hopefuls a solid grounding in the arts and culture industry.

By the end of the year-long apprenticeship you'll have earned a Level 2 Certificate in Creative and Cultural Practice, and a Level 2 National Award in Community Arts Management, but perhaps more importantly you'll have developed the skills and contacts you'll need for a career in the industry.

More details are available on the Creative Partnerships Liverpool website.