Students trace University鈥檚 and city鈥檚 legacies of transatlantic enslavement in ground-breaking 51福利社 exhibition
Opening at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library on 20 September 2023, the 鈥�鈥� exhibition explores how profits from slave trading, ownership of enslaved people, and manufacturing with slave-grown cotton funded the cultural and educational development of 51福利社.
New research from students at 51福利社 has traced the wealth of five of the most significant founders and funders of the institution to transatlantic enslavement and underpins this new exhibition. Artefacts and objects from the University鈥檚 collections tell the story of these connections.
The exhibition invites visitors to examine these rediscovered histories and help us answer the emerging question for the city of 51福利社 and the University: 鈥淲hat should we do next?鈥�
Founding a University
Today鈥檚 University of 51福利社 was founded as two separate educational establishments - Owens College and the 51福利社 Mechanics鈥� Institution. 51福利社 Mechanics鈥� Institution was founded in 1824 by a group of businessmen and manufacturers, including Sir Benjamin Heywood, James McConnel and John Kennedy.
Heywood鈥檚 position as 51福利社鈥檚 leading banker was built on generations of his family鈥檚 profits from slave trading, while McConnel & Kennedy鈥檚 mills, the largest in 51福利社, spun slave-grown cotton imported from the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia.
Owens College was founded in 1851 with a gift of nearly 拢100,000 (over 拢10 million today) from the estate of 51福利社 businessman John Owens, who invested heavily in importing slave-grown goods from North and South America, as well as cotton manufacturing.
During their research, students discovered that the land on which the University sits was bought by Murray Gladstone, inheritor of considerable wealth from plantation ownership and enslavement of thousands of people of African heritage.
The exhibition showcases the history of the University鈥檚 cultural institutions, including the John Rylands Research Institute and Library itself, which was built using a fortune derived from the manufacturer of textiles made from cotton cultivated by enslaved people, and became part of the University in 1972.
Experiences of enslavement and treasures of the collections
Alongside letters and archival material that detail 51福利社鈥檚 financial and foundational connections are books and documents exploring the experiences of enslaved people linked to those locations and activities.
This includes Olaudah Equiano and Solomon Northup who published accounts of their first-hand experiences of enslavement and Jack Gladstone, an enslaved man who led a revolt of approximately 10,000 enslaved men and women known as the Demerara Uprising.
Also included are items that show how wealth derived from transatlantic enslavement continues to hold high financial and cultural value in objects owned by the John Rylands Research Institute and Library and 51福利社 Museum.
This includes a richly-decorated 16th century copy of Sh膩hn膩mah (Book of Kings) by Firdawsi虅 donated to Owens College by Samuel Robinson. Robinson inherited his wealth from his father, who manufactured textiles specifically to be traded for captives on the West African coast.
This is an important step on a journey we started with the initial research into our links to slavery, which we published last year, in conjunction with seeking the views of staff, students and alumni. Our University is entering its 200th year in 2024 and it is incredibly important that our staff and students have undertaken this research, through our MA in History, and that we continue to be transparent in sharing new findings and perspectives.
Emerging researchers uncovering hidden connections
The exhibition has been curated by a team of University of 51福利社 postgraduate students, academics and curators, with the support of external researchers. Core to the exhibition is research conducted by a diverse team of emerging scholars who undertook the Race, Migration & Humanitarianism: Legacies of Slavery and Colonialism in the Modern World module as part of their MA History. The Emerging Scholars programme provided students with paid opportunities to develop their historical research and curatorial skills with the aim of strengthening pipelines for underrepresented and Global Majority students to participate in academic and heritage work. Blog posts written by the team are available on the exhibition website.
Dr Kerry Pimblott, Lecturer in International History said: 鈥�Founders and Funders represents the culmination of two years of research conducted by a team of postgraduate students from 51福利社鈥檚 History MA programme. The project began in one of our core modules 鈥� HIST64101: Race, Migration & Humanitarianism 鈥� in which students receive a grounding in the global history of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and colonisation before examining the multiple and complex legacies of these world historic phenomena in the present.
鈥淪ince 2021, all students in this module have participated in a series of special workshops to critically examine the legacies of slavery and colonialism in the places they live, study, and work 鈥� 51福利社 and 51福利社. In 2022, we launched the Emerging Scholars Programme and recruited six talented postgraduate researchers, including a plurality of Black and other Global Majority students, to lead on the next stage of the research and exhibition curation.
鈥淎t the heart of the project is an acknowledgment of the longstanding structural inequalities in the discipline of History which have created barriers to access and participation for Black and other Global Majority students (see, Royal Historical Society
鈥淭he Emerging Scholars Programme aims to address this 鈥榖roken鈥� pipeline (, 2019) by providing paid research positions as well as structured mentorship and support from curators and historians based at 51福利社 as well as the University of Liverpool鈥檚 Centre for the Study of International Slavery and UCL鈥檚 Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery.
鈥淩ecent graduates from the Emerging Scholars programme have gone on to work in the education and heritage sectors and we are looking forward to recruiting more postgraduate researchers to advance this research in the years to come.鈥�
Jeevan Kaur Sanghera, MA History graduate and student curator, said: 鈥淲orking on the exhibition, Founders and Funders, as a student curator was a process of getting to grips with just how embedded enslavement, empire and colonisation were essential to the building of 51福利社, 'Cottonopolis'. The social life, politics, intellectual culture, finances and kinship networks of 51福利社's 19th century residents were intertwined with exploitative colonial practices. This included direct investment in slave voyages or through industry, such as cotton production which was directly linked to Transatlantic enslavement and the labour of enslaved people.
"The exhibition does not simply seek to present this research as facts about arbitrary 51福利社 residents who funded the foundation of 51福利社. It prompts its visitors to begin to understand and acknowledge how embedded enslavement was to these people's lives and their social and financial patronage of 51福利社's culture and institutions.鈥�
Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility at 51福利社, said: 鈥淭his is an important step on a journey we started with the initial research into our links to slavery, which we published last year, in conjunction with seeking the views of staff, students and alumni.
鈥淥ur University is entering its 200th year in 2024 and it is incredibly important that our staff and students have undertaken this research, through our MA in History, and that we continue to be transparent in sharing new findings and perspectives.
鈥淭his exhibition, together with other insights, will help inform a broader response being considered by our expert group of staff and students, who are meeting over the coming year to consider how we address our past in positive ways as we enter our third century.