Day 31 Telford- Chester- 56m
Day 32 Chester- Liverpool-32m
Liverpool is a fascinating city. It's steeped in maritime history and, of course, world famous for the 4 locals who formed a band called The Beatles and proceeded to shake the world of music to its very core. It also has the wonderfully endearing quality of being a place where people seem to frequently address each other as 'love'. Strangely, doesn't seem to happen much between men but I'm sure there's places.
Being a hopeless romantic I purposefully chose a route via Birkenhead and the ferry across the Mersey. I only discovered on arrival at Birkenhead that someone built a tunnel over a century ago and it's just the tourist boats that cross the river now. Sure enough they played Gerry and 'ferry cross the mersey' on repeat but it was a good way to arrive with extensive views of the docks and their grand architecture.
In the 19th and first part of the 20th century, thousands of people set off down this river and out to sea to start new lives in America. It was strange to think that for many who settled and never returned this would have been their last sight of their homeland. What would they have been thinking and feeling?
Sadly Liverpool also has a darker side, a story of those who went to the American continent not by choice but brutal coercion. I'm talking of the African slave trade and much of the cities rise to wealth, as reflected in the grand buildings, owes itself to this. In the mid 1700's Liverpool dominated this trade with around 150 merchants dealing directly in the industry and countless others profiting indirectly from the rise to wealth.
We have probably all heard about the brutality and cruelty involved in this trade but I'd like to offer some thoughts on the cultural/social mindsets that allowed this to happen and how,even today, similar attitudes allow much injustice to go unchallenged.
My belief is there may have been a minority who believed in genetic superiority (this was pre- Darwin and his decisive evidence for humanities shared gene pool). However, surely the majority of society must have had an uneasy sense that something was fundamentally wrong. In which case, why did it take so long for something to change? In very simple terms I think it may have been due to the following 2 attitudes:
1: There were some that thought it to be wrong but, because they were benefitting in some way and didn't want their lifestyle to suffer they chose to keep quiet.
2: There were some that thought it wrong but because those around them seemed not to be bothered they questioned themselves and concluded they must be over-reacting.
These are simplified categories and there may be others but history shows these 2 mindsets allowed immense pain and suffering to occur- an estimated 12 million Africans forcibly taken by Europeans and stripped of all rights of humanity and an African continent that still shows signs of the traumatisation to this day.
I guess the point I want to make links to previous posts. It's about the importance of speaking through our actions, i.e of staying awake to how our lifestyles can have deep ethical implications. Trying not to put our personal comfort before others suffering and,of course, standing up and speaking out when we believe something is fundamentally wrong. (That's what eventually happened,creating a critical mass that effected change).
Thanks as always for tuning in. I continue my journey today, on through the urban jungle for another day or two then it's open country to the lake district and on to bonnie Scotland.
Below are some inspiring quotes from Liverpools fascinating Museum of International Slavery- impossible to walk through dry eyed.
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2 comments:
Money is a good thing but it's a pisspoor justification. I know a lot of liberal people but I'd guess less than half would protest something they ethically disagreed with, or make a deliberate economic choice based upon a moral decision they'd come to. I know you would and do, and are more than capable of independent thought but I don't think most people exercise or can recognise independent thought beyond casting a phone vote on Big Brother or Strictly Come Dancing (I exagerate a bit but you know what I mean). And without independence of thought bad shit will go on. One of the largest growth industries in a recession is the sex industry and this is nothing if not the slave trade of the present times.
Hi Robbie, hear what you are saying, but I do believe that often it can come down to education, a lot of us, including myself are simply not aware of etchical issues surrounding our choices.We all have the right to be made aware of those issues, some people will choose to ignore butI do believe we are entering an era of greater social awareness and the more people jump on that train the greater the momentum.
You are absoloutly right to imply that slavery still exists just perhaps not so overtly, perhaps a topic for another post
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