The British Slave Trade and its abolition 1770-1807

Reporter, Mara Menzies:

Glasgow today is a thriving metropolis. Visitors come to Glasgow to shop in its designer stores, to eat in its diverse range of restaurants and to admire its stunning architecture. Glasgow has evolved over the last 300 years, but the journey has been controversial.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Glasgow was a poor town in an isolated country. The act of union with England opened up trading opportunities and entrepreneurs seized the moment.

Merchants supplied the colonies with much needed provisions without which they could not survive. On the return journey, ships were loaded up with tobacco, sugar and cotton. All were cultivated by African slaves.

Tobacco made up over one third of Scotland’s imports and over half its exports. This trade was fantastically profitable and tobacco traders became some of the richest men in the world.

By the end of the 18th century, Glasgow had transformed into the second city of the Empire and was at the forefront of the new industrial society. The rate of development outpaced anything seen in England at that time.

Landowners had an interest in the tobacco trade and had the money to invest in ships. The noveau riche behaved outrageously with their new-found fortune. The Trongate in Glasgow’s Merchant City was their own private street. It was paved. They did not want to walk on muddy roads with the riff-raff as it would ruin their outfits. Poor people were beaten if they used the Trongate.

Jamaica Street, Virginia Street and the Kingston Bridge are all named after areas where Glasgow merchants traded and made their fortunes.

What about Glasgow’s hidden history? Buchanan Street, great for shopping. It was named after a tobacco merchant called Andrew Buchanan.

We know it as the Gallery of Modern Art. Our parents know it as the Stirling Library. But this was originally built by tobacco merchant William Cunningham as his home.

This is St Andrew’s church. It was built and paid for by wealthy tobacco lords. The houses in the square were the fashionable residences for the tobacco lords. They were close to their exclusive church. It has been described as one of the top six classical church buildings in Britain.

This was the home of Robert Finlay, tobacco importer. It stands in the heart of Glasgow. The wealth has spread throughout Scotland. Auchincruive in Ayrshire, the home of Richard Oswald, where he built his own teahouse and bridge, is still there for all to see. Alexander Allerdyce of Aberdeenshire was a slave trader. He took more African slaves to Jamaica than the entire population of Aberdeen at the time.

John Glassford owned 25 ships in nine trading posts in Maryland and eleven in Virginia. By 1775, Glassford controlled more than half the Clyde. He helped finance the Forth and Clyde canal. He set up the Fowlis Academy, a school for art and design. His love of art is in evidence at the People’s Palace. The Glassford family posed with their little slave boy, but he has since been airbrushed out.

Merchants used the Tower at the Brigait to look down the River Clyde to watch their ships coming in loaded with cargo from the colonies. Tobacco merchants set up a number of banks in order to deal with their bills of trading. The Scottish banking system grew as a direct result of the tobacco trade.

Poet Robert Burns was all set to leave Scotland and earn his fortune working as a bookkeeper on Charles Duncan’s estate in Jamaica. The success of his book of poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect, made the journey unnecessary and he stayed on to become Scotland’s national bard. In 1775, the tobacco trade collapsed due to the American War of Independence. The colonies, now free of the navigation acts, simply bypassed Glasgow and sold direct to the European market, but export trade did not disappear. The Empire still had the West Indies.

New technology meant linen mills were able to convert to cotton mills to deal with the demand for clothing in Africa and on the plantations. Cotton soon replaced tobacco as the backbone of the Scottish economy. Money was invested in new inventions. Engines were designed to accelerate production. Factories developed which required skilled labour. Glasgow established a ship building industry and became a respectable industrial leader. History is on everyone’s doorstep. Sometimes you need to scratch beneath the surface, but the evidence is there. You will be amazed at what you will find.