Slavery Remembrance Day

The annual Slavery Remembrance Day is held on 23 August. This is a significant date as it commemorates an uprising of enslaved Africans on the island of Saint Domingue (modern Haiti) in 1791. 

The date has been designated by UNESCO as Slavery Remembrance Day, a reminder that enslaved Africans were the main agents of their own liberation. 

Slavery Remembrance Day 2012

This year we welcomed Mr Martin Luther King III|, eldest son of the great Civil Rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Our guest offered a powerful reminder that it is as important as ever to acknowledge a major period of trauma and injustice in world history.

Event highlights included the Walk of Remembrance and a libation ceremony  with Mr King. In a special tribute to the King family the Dock Traffic Office, a National Museums Liverpool building, was named after Martin Luther King Jr with a plaque unveiled by his son. 

Mr King also gave this year's special memorial lecture 'Fulfilling the dream, idols vs ideals', at St George's Hall on Wednesday 22 August. Director David Fleming introduced Martin Luther King. Read David Fleming's introductory welcome speech| (pdf). 

Liverpool Slavery Remembrance Initiative 

"Branded like beasts who feel no pain
And all for Merrye Englande's gain

But England's Changing-Rearranging
Only we can clear our Name

Growing! Knowing! Trade Winds are blowing!
Things'll nevva be the same."

Excerpt from 'Slavepool' by Mohammed Khalil - a poem recounting Liverpool's role in the slave trade.

Liverpool Slavery Remembrance Initiative is a partnership between National Museums Liverpool, individuals from the Liverpool Black community, Liverpool City Council and The Mersey Partnership. Through Slavery Remembrance Day we seek to:

• commemorate the lives and deaths of the millions of enslaved Africans and their descendants who were central to the rise of Britain as an industrial power
• remember that we live with the legacies of transatlantic slavery such as racism and discrimination and ongoing inequalities, injustices and exploitation
• celebrate the resistance, rebellion and revolution that ended slavery, as well as the rise of popular movements for racial justice and social change that said both then and now "never again".

Resistance to injustices and discrimination is a central theme of the International Slavery Museum and that is why we fully support the continued observance of this important event. 

Contact us

We would like to know your thoughts on Slavery Remembrance Day. If you would like to comment on this year’s events, make suggestions or find out more about our plans or future activities, please contact us on 0151 478 4543.