International Slavery Museum

Originally part of the Merseyside Maritime Museum, which opened in 1980, the history of the slave trade was originally discussed as part of the city's maritime history shortly before a dedicated Transatlantic Slavery gallery was created in 1994 to better explore Liverpool's historic role in the slave trade.{{cite web|title=Creating a museum|url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/about/creating-museum.aspx|website=www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk|access-date=8 May 2019}} Notable among campaigners for the establishment of an international slavery museum in 1992 was Dorothy Kuya.{{Cite web |last=Tyrrell |first=Nick |date=2021-03-10 |title=Activists who people want honoured as university site is renamed |url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/activists-who-people-want-honoured-20056379 |access-date=2023-04-07 |website=Liverpool Echo |language=en}}

By the early 2000s international interest in the exhibition and a high volume of visitors led to the decision for a museum specially dedicated to the history of slavery to be set up so as to better explain slavery and its legacy.

The new museum opened on 23 August 2007, the date of the annual International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition marking the beginning of the slave uprising in Saint-Domingue. The year 2007 was particularly significant as it was the bicentenary of the United Kingdom's Slave Trade Act 1807, which abolished the slave trade (though not slavery itself) inside the British Empire. The Merseyside Maritime Museum used to house a Transatlantic Slavery Gallery. Phase 1 of the International Slavery Museum involved relocating current exhibitions to the third floor of the museum and adding new displays, which doubled the space dedicated to the subject.

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The East Gallery features approximately 400 annotated songs pertaining to the experience of slavery and the music of Africa and the slave-descended African diaspora.Brown 2007, p. 139.

The museum was awarded £50,000 in March 2018 to buy and restore the painting 'Am Not I A Man and a Brother'. The painting dates from around 1800 and is based upon a design commissioned by the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The image is considered to be one of the first instances of a logo designed for a political cause, and was used on the pottery of Josiah Wedgwood.{{cite web |title=Museum awarded £50k - National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool museums, Liverpool museums |url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/about/mediacentre/2018/museum-awarded-50k.aspx |website=www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307004331/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/about/mediacentre/2018/museum-awarded-50k.aspx |archive-date=7 March 2018}}

In 2023, Michelle Charters was announced as the new Head of the museum.{{Cite web |last=Jarman |first=Jemma |date=2023-11-13 |title=Michelle Charters named head of International Slavery Museum |url=https://uk.icom.museum/michelle-charters-named-head-of-international-slavery-museum/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=ICOM UK |language=en-GB}}

In 2024 it was announced that extensive renovations were to take place, incorporating the former Dock Traffic Office, now the Dr Martin Luther King Jr building. which adjoins the Maritime Museum. The two buildings are to be linked by an iron and glass bridge.{{Cite web |last=Sherlock |first=Gemma |date=2024-10-02 |title=Liverpool museums to undergo £58m makeover |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79nvqzdezlo |access-date=2025-02-19 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

The museum closed for renovations at the start of 2025 and is due to reopen in 2028.{{Cite web |last=Atkinson |first=Rebecca |date=2024-12-19 |title=International Slavery Museum to close from 5 January for redevelopment |url=https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2024/12/international-slavery-museum-to-close-from-5-january-for-redevelopment/ |access-date=2025-02-19 |website=Museums Association |language=en-US}}

There is a section about life and culture in West Africa before the transatlantic slave trade, the history of slavery and also displays and special exhibitions about the legacies of slavery and current human rights issues.

• Slavery museum (France)
• Whitney Plantation Historic District (US)
• United States National Slavery Museum (planned, abandoned)

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Daniel Brown, "Songs of Slavery", Index on Censorship, Volume 36, Number 1, 2007, p. 138–140.

• {{Official|http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism}}
• [http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk National Museums Liverpool]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HS0JAkr2qE Sculpture marks abolition of slave trade anniversary]
• [http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,,2133494,00.html Guardian article on the opening of phase 1]

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{{Slave narrative}}

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Category:National Museums Liverpool

Category:Museums in Liverpool

Category:History museums in Merseyside

Category:Museums established in 2007

Category:2007 establishments in England

Category:Slavery museums