Lancaster and its Human Merchandise

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Thu, 02/02/2017 - 22:12

Customs House

Lancaster, our county town, was the nation's fourth biggest slaving port in the eighteenth century, after Bristol, London and Liverpool. Although few slaves landed here, the slaving ships set off on their terrible journeys to Africa, where they would stock up on their human cargo before heading west to the Americas. It made the town rich, and many of its finest and tallest buildings originate from this era. 

Recently, a monument to the Africans enslaved by Lancastrian traders were erected on the town's historic quayside. Sure evidence of man's utter corruption and depravity is this nation's eighteenth century prosperity.