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An Open Access edition of this book will be made available on publication on our website and on the OAPEN Library, funded by the LUP Open Access Author Fund.
The Persistence of Memory is a history of the public memory of transatlantic slavery in the largest slave-trading port city in Europe, from the end of the 18th century into the 21st century; from history to memory. Mapping this public memory over more than two centuries reveals the ways in which dissonant pasts, rather than being ‘forgotten histories’, persist over time as a contested public debate. This public memory, intimately intertwined with constructions of ‘place’ and ‘identity’, has been shaped by legacies of transatlantic slavery itself, as well as other events, contexts and phenomena along its trajectory, revealing the ways in which current narratives and debate around difficult histories have histories of their own. By the 21st century, Liverpool, once the ‘slaving capital of the world’, had more permanent and long-lasting memory work relating to transatlantic slavery than any other British city. The long history of how Liverpool, home to Britain’s oldest continuous black presence, has publicly ‘remembered’ its own slaving past, how this has changed over time and why, is of central significance and relevance to current and ongoing efforts to face contested histories, particularly those surrounding race, slavery and empire.
An Open Access edition of this book will be made available on publication on our website and on the OAPEN Library, funded by the LUP Open Access Author Fund.
The Persistence of Memory is a history of the public memory of transatlantic slavery in the largest slave-trading port city in Europe, from the end of the 18th century into the 21st century; from history to memory. Mapping this public memory over more than two centuries reveals the ways in which dissonant pasts, rather than being ‘forgotten histories’, persist over time as a contested public debate. This public memory, intimately intertwined with constructions of ‘place’ and ‘identity’, has been shaped by legacies of transatlantic slavery itself, as well as other events, contexts and phenomena along its trajectory, revealing the ways in which current narratives and debate around difficult histories have histories of their own. By the 21st century, Liverpool, once the ‘slaving capital of the world’, had more permanent and long-lasting memory work relating to transatlantic slavery than any other British city. The long history of how Liverpool, home to Britain’s oldest continuous black presence, has publicly ‘remembered’ its own slaving past, how this has changed over time and why, is of central significance and relevance to current and ongoing efforts to face contested histories, particularly those surrounding race, slavery and empire.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Remembering Slavery in the ‘Slaving Capital of
the World’
Slavery, Memory, Public History
The Persistence of Dissonant Memory
Recovering Memory across a Longue Durée: methodology and book
structure
1: From History to Memory: The Discursive Legacies of the
Past
Introduction
Liverpool, ‘slaving capital of the world’
From History to Memory
Scouse Boasting, an Enterprising Sprit and The
Competition
‘The Glory and the Shame’
Overcoming Abolition
The Memorial Debate of Liverpool and Slavery
Conclusion
2. Black Liverpool: Living with the Legacy of the
Past
Introduction
Exceptional Legacies: the Liverpool black presence in the
eighteenth and nineteenth century
Racism, Riot and Resistance: living with the legacy of the
past
Guerrilla Public History: Education and Activism
Conclusion
3. Coinciding Anniversaries: Birthdays and the Abolition Act
in 1907, 1957 and 2007
Introduction
1907: Performing Civic Patriotism and Celebrating the Slave
Trade
1957: Racism, Decolonisation, and Abolition
2007: Birthdays and Bicentenaries
Conclusion
4. The ‘Cult’ of William Roscoe: Remembering
Abolition
Introduction
Liverpool and Abolition
The Cult of William Roscoe
Conclusion
5. The Rise of the Museums
Introduction
The Transatlantic Slavery Gallery
The International Slavery Museum
Conclusion
6. Performing Memory: Local slavery memory in a globalizing
world
Introduction
Whose Apology? Local Apology, Global Audience
Slavery Remembrance Day
Conclusion
7. Sites of Memory: Bodies and the Cityscape
Introduction
Buying and Selling: Myth, Place, and Layering
Graves and Ghosts
Bodies in Stone
Conclusion
Bibliography
Periodicals
Archival Material
Published Guidebooks
Histories of Liverpool
Other Primary Texts and Sources
Secondary Works
Websites and Online Resources
Jessica Moody is a Lecturer in Public History at University of Bristol
'An extremely thoughtful and illuminating book, based on meticulous
research. As a contribution to our understanding of the legacy of
slavery in Liverpool, this book will be regarded as a landmark
study, offering a very clever and insightful meditation on history
and memory that is bound to excite interest on both sides of the
Atlantic.'
Professor John Oldfield, Director of the Wilberforce Institute for
the study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull
'Moody’s book is timely and instructive. Though each is important
in its own right, it offers more than an academic meditation on
theories of memory... It provides, too, an insightful case study of
how evolving and contested memories of Britain’s colonial and slave
past are reshaping the 21st century cultural and political
landscape of the nation as a whole.'David Richardson, Memory
Studies
'The Persistence of Memory is impressive in scope because Jessica
Moody brings together many different ways of memorializing the
slave trade and slavery... This is essential reading for
understanding the issues surrounding consulting and working with
Black communities — those of African Caribbean descent, others with
long histories in Britain, and those more recently migrated from
African countries.' Sheryllynne Haggerty, Journal of British
Studies
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