Time is right for memorial to Scotland's connections with slavery

Published on Monday 15 January 2007 00:08

THIS year marks not only the tercentenary of the Treaty of Union, which will be the subject of considerable debate over the coming months, but also heralds the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade within the British Empire in 1807.

This will be marked by a programme of events throughout the country, and while Scots were at the forefront of its abolition, we have tended to forget Scotland's involvement in the trade and plantation slavery.

For many, this is viewed as an English or American business, where 12 million Africans were wrenched from the continent and plunged into the hell of the slave plantations of the Americas.

This jaundiced view of Scotland's role in the slave trade is remarkable, given Glasgow's wealth was generated by tobacco, sugar and cotton, and "Jamaica Streets" being found in a number of Scottish towns and cities.

But it is a role that is, at last, beginning to be acknowledged. With Burns Night approaching, it is worth remembering that the author of The Slave's Lament, had he not been rescued financially through the success of his Kilmarnock Edition of poems, would have sailed like many Scots to Jamaica for a job as an overseer on a slave plantation.

In line with cities such as Bristol and Liverpool - key ports in the slave trade - a permanent memorial to Scotland's role in slavery is now clearly called for.

The slave trade was central to the economy of the British Empire in the 18th century and, by the end of that century, it is estimated that 35,000 Africans a year were being traded by British merchants.

Scotland was no stranger to this trade, with an estimated 31 voyages relating to the African trade sailing from Scottish ports - including Port Glasgow, Greenock, Montrose and Leith - between 1706 and 1766.

The role of slavery in adding to Scotland's wealth is demonstrated by the rapid evolution of Glasgow into an industrial city.

Taking place mainly in the 18th century, it was a transformation built on tobacco, sugar and cotton - commodities produced off the back of slave labour. By the 1770s the city controlled over half of the British trade in tobacco. It was a highly profitable trade and the tobacco traders soon became some of the richest men in the world.

Scotland's wealthy pre-eminence in the world was based within the British Empire - a wealth generated in part through slavery in the 18th century - and a permanent memorial would remind future generations of this fact and the vital role Scots played in slavery's eventual abolition.

• Alex Orr is a member of the European Movement and of a campaign for a permanent memorial to Scotland's role in slavery and the slave trade.