*Glasgow launches detailed study of its historical links with transatlantic slavery*

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  • The Disturbing History of Tobacco

    Tobacco: slaves picked it, Europe smoked it, and the Tobacco Lords of Glasgow grew filthy rich on the profits. Their legacy can be found in the street names across the ‘Merchant City’, but not a single street bears the name of the slaves that made them their fortunes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_YDMbLXtx0

    #Glasgow #esclavage #toponymie #toponymie_politique #noms_de_rue #UK #Ecosse #histoire #tabac #Jamestown #Bunce_island #plantation #géographie_urbaine #Merchant_city #John_Glassford #vidéo

  • Glasgow has internalised it’s role in the slave trade. A thread.


    Despite the fact black people make up less than 1% of the overall Scottish population, Glasgow being a major city should rise and re-name these streets. It should not forever internalise such a disgusting time in history.
    Also, Jamaica and Tobago street are right next to these streets.
    Please forgive the spelling mistakes. I don’t double check what I’ve written when I’m so emotionally invested.

    https://twitter.com/lulijta/status/1266908244276121601

    #Glasgow #Ecosse #toponymie #toponymie_politique #noms_de_rue #colonialisme #colonisation #esclavage #histoire

    voir aussi:
    https://seenthis.net/messages/810253

    ping @neotoponymie @reka @karine4 @cede

    • Glasgow ’slaver’ streets renamed by anti-racist campaigners
      https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ff15c21a4f319e8eb43361a89f1249f76eff7fac/0_3_3500_2100/master/3500.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=13301034d846ef339e7165

      Anti-racism campaigners have renamed streets in the centre of Glasgow that have links to the slave trade.

      In several streets, signs with a black background and white font have appeared alongside the originals, as activists replace the names of tobacco lords and slave trade ownerswith those of black activists, slaves and people killed by police officers.

      Cochrane Street – named after Andrew Cochrane, an 18th-century tobacco lord – has been retitled Sheku Bayoh Street.

      Sheku Bayoh died in 2015 in police custody in Scotland aged 32 after he was restrained by officers responding to a call in Kirkcaldy.

      His sister – who is a nurse – said her family would have attended planned demonstrations in Scotland this weekend but the danger of spreading coronavirus is “still too great”.

      Buchanan Street, named after a slave owner, was renamed George Floyd Street, however the sign has now been removed.

      Rosa Parks Street has been suggested as an alternative for Wilson Street – after the American civil rights activist.

      Floyd, an African-American, died after a white police officer knelt on his knee in Minneapolis on 25 May. His death has sparked days of protest around the world.

      The Glasgow street name changes come after more than 11,500 people signed a petition to rename streets named after slave owners.

      The petition states: “I think it’s important to take these tobacco lords off the pedestal they seemingly stand on and instead recognise other Scottish activists who are deserving of such esteem.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/06/glasgow-slaver-streets-renamed-by-anti-racist-campaigners?CMP=Share_iOS

    • Glasgow apologises for role in slave trade, saying its ‘tentacles’ are in every corner of city

      Report commissioned by city council says blood of enslaved people is ‘built into the very bones’ of the metropolis

      Glasgow authorities have apologised for the city’s role in the Atlantic slave trade, saying the “tentacles” of money from the practice reached every corner of Scotland’s biggest metropolis.

      The apology comes as Britain increasingly reckons with the legacy of its colonial past in the wake of global Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests.

      It follows the release of an academic study Glasgow city council commissioned about the city’s connections to the trade in human beings.

      “Follow the Atlantic slavery money trail and its tentacles reach into every corner of Glasgow,” council leader Susan Aitken told colleagues at a meeting on Thursday.

      “It’s clear what this report tells is that the blood of trafficked and enslaved African people, their children and their children’s children is built into the very bones of this city.”

      One of the report’s main findings was that 40 out of 79 lord provosts or mayors from Glasgow were connected to the Atlantic slave trade between 1636 and 1834.

      Some sat in office while owning enslaved people.

      At least 11 buildings in Glasgow are connected to individuals who were involved with the trade, while eight implicated individuals have monuments or other memorials to them in the city.

      A total of 62 Glasgow streets are named after slave owners who built their fortunes on tobacco plantations.

      These include Buchanan Street and Glassford Street, named after the “tobacco lords” Andrew Buchanan and John Glassford.

      James Watt, whose improvements to the steam engine drove the Industrial Revolution, was personally involved in trafficking a black child for sale to a family in north-east Scotland, the report said.

      “It can no longer be ignored and the amendment that I am moving today asks us to do three things: to acknowledge, apologise and to act,” Aitken said.

      Glasgow council’s chief executive, Annemarie O’Donnell, said the city acknowledged that black, Asian and minority ethnic citizens wished the council to “recognise the historic legacy of chattel slavery based on the exploitation of enslaved Africans”.

      The report, by the University of Glasgow academic Stephen Mullen, who has written extensively on the city’s links to slavery, was “a step towards healing the anger and frustration” felt by these citizens, she added.

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/01/glasgow-apologises-for-role-in-slave-trade-saying-its-tentacles-are-in-
      #excuses

    • Glasgow Slavery #Audit

      We commissioned this report to determine the historic connections and modern legacies derived from the Atlantic slave trade.

      The core of this study is focused on individuals, who were residents of Glasgow and elsewhere, involved with Atlantic slavery between c.1603 and 1838. Some of these individuals shaped today’s city, whilst others are memorialised in civic space.

      https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=29117
      #rapport

  • University of Glasgow publishes report into historical slavery

    The University of Glasgow has published a comprehensive report into the institution’s historical links with racial slavery.

    The study acknowledges that whilst it played a leading role in the abolitionist movement, the University also received significant financial support from people whose wealth at least in part derived from slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries.

    The Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow report, co-authored by Professor Simon Newman and Dr Stephen Mullen, both from the University of Glasgow, follows a year-long investigation into bequests, support and other ways the University might have benefited from slavery-related wealth.

    It estimates the present-day value of all monies given to the University which might have been fully or partly derived from slavery to be in the order of tens of millions of pounds, depending on the indexation formula.

    The University has now agreed a proactive programme of reparative justice which includes the creation of a centre for the study of slavery and a memorial or tribute at the University in the name of the enslaved.

    The University is also working with the University of the West Indies (UWI) and hopes to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen academic collaboration between the two institutions.

    Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, said: “The University of Glasgow has a proud record of anti-slavery activity including petitioning Parliament to abolish slavery and awarding an honorary degree to the emancipationist, William Wilberforce. Glasgow also educated James McCune Smith, a formerly enslaved New Yorker who became the first ever African American to receive a medical degree.

    “This report has been an important undertaking and commitment to find out if the University benefitted from slavery in the past. Although the University never owned enslaved people or traded in the goods they produced, it is now clear we received significant financial support from people whose wealth came from slavery.

    “The University deeply regrets this association with historical slavery which clashes with our proud history of support for the abolition of both the slave trade and slavery itself.

    “Looking to the future, the University has set out a programme of reparative justice through which we will seek to acknowledge this aspect of the University’s past, enhance awareness and understanding of historical slavery, and forge positive partnerships with new partners including the University of the West Indies.”

    The University will also work to further enhance awareness and understanding of the history and its connections to both slavery and abolitionism.

    Professor Simon Newman, the University of Glasgow report’s co-author, said: “The University of Glasgow has made history in the UK today by acknowledging that alongside its proud history of abolitionism is an equally significant history of financially benefitting from racial slavery. In doing this, Glasgow follows in the footsteps of leading American universities which have confronted the role of slavery in their histories.

    “The University of Glasgow is an institution that grew in a city tied to the trade in tobacco, sugar and cotton, all of which were initially produced by enslaved Africans. Launching an in-depth investigation to look at how the University might have benefited from the profits of racial slavery was, in my opinion, a brave decision. But it is a decision rooted in the core values of an educational institution dedicated to the pursuit of truth and social justice.

    “I am delighted that we have acknowledged our past, albeit indirect, ties to racial slavery and been inspired to develop new and exciting opportunities and collaborations for students and academics alike as part of a rolling programme of reparative justice.”

    One of the three external advisors to the slavery report was Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, the Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies; along with Professor Sir Geoff Palmer, a leading civil rights and equality campaigner and Graham Campbell, a Glasgow City Council councillor and an activist for African-Caribbean issues in Scotland.

    Professor Sir Hilary Beckles said: “I have looked closely at the report, reading it within the context of the University of Glasgow-University of the West Indies framework for mutual recognition and respect.

    “The approach adopted by the University of Glasgow is commendable and is endorsed by the UWI as an excellent place to begin. Both universities are committed to excellent and ethical research, teaching and public service.

    “I celebrate colleagues in Glasgow for taking these first steps and keenly anticipate working through next steps.”

    The University has accepted the recommendations in the report. This commits it to:

    Publish the Senior Management Group’s statement of July 2016, along with the final version of the report detailing the research and conclusions of the research into how the University benefited from the profits of historical slavery, and a statement describing the reparative justice actions to be undertaken by the University.
    Strive to increase the racial diversity of students and staff and to reduce the degree attainment gap, in line with the University of Glasgow’s Equality and Diversity Policy. This will include awarding scholarships to BAME students of Afro-Caribbean descent to help address their under-representation in the University.
    Pursue the negotiation and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Glasgow and the University of the West Indies, designed to fit the needs and requirements of UWI staff and students, while working in alignment with the educational and research objectives of the University of Glasgow.
    Create an interdisciplinary centre for the study of historical slavery and its legacies, including modern slavery and trafficking.
    Inaugurate a named professorship, a rotating post to be awarded to University of Glasgow academics undertaking significant research relevant to historical and modern slavery and reparative justice.
    Name a major new University building or space to commemorate a significant figure, perhaps James McCune Smith, with appropriate signage and public-facing information.
    Add a commemorative plaque to the Gilbert Scott Building, explaining that this was the site of the house of Robert Bogle, a West India merchant who owned many enslaved people, and who was one of a number of people who made money from slavery and who then later donated funds for the construction of the building.
    Develop a Hunterian exhibition exploring the often unknown and unexpected ways in which some items within the collections are related to the history of racial slavery.
    Develop a creative arts and sciences series (under the auspices of the new centre), with performances, events and lectures.

    https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_607154_en.html

    #esclavage #histoire #rapport
    cc @reka

    Ici pour télécharger le rapport :
    https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_607547_en.pdf

    Autres documents sur l’esclavage sur le portail de l’université de Glasgow :
    https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/slavery