Study examines links between Manchester workers and Caribbean slave trade

A new study by the public history project Global Threads has examined the connections between the exploitation of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and 19th-century Manchester workers, according to the Guardian. The research project revealed how slavery influenced struggles for equality in the city, including the Peterloo massacre. [1]

The Guardian reported that the Peterloo massacre took place in 1819 at St Peter's Field in Manchester. During the event, peaceful protesters were shot and trampled to death by the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry. The killings helped pave the way for working-class people to gain the right to vote and led to the founding of the Manchester Guardian. [1]

The research builds on wider historical context regarding the British transatlantic slave trade. As FTMQ News reported earlier, a database known as the Register of British Slave-Traders lists 13,000 individuals in Britain who invested in the trafficking of more than three million enslaved Africans between 1563 and 1807. [1][5]

During the 19th century, slavery was abolished across much of Europe and the Americas. At the same time, the First Industrial Revolution expanded beyond Britain and transformed economies and societies across Europe and North America. [2]