GLASGOW City Council leader Susan Aitken has called for the city to apologise for slavery, following a new report stating it earned money from the Atlantic trade.
A Glasgow University investigation into Glasgow’s links to slavery in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries was requested by the SNP councillor prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It revealed how investments were directly made by the city in the Company of Scotland, which traded slaves.
Aitken said: “This is the most in-depth picture to date of Glasgow’s role in the enslavement of people and the benefits the city accrued from trades built on the trafficking and labour of enslaved people.
“We need to be honest about Glasgow’s history, our involvement in the slave economy, the attempt at creating a Scottish empire and our deep role in the British Empire.
“There are people who live every day with the legacy of their ancestors having been enslaved, and Glasgow, and some people with very high status within it, had a very deep role in that. We need to step up and apologise, to express contrition and sorrow for our part in the moral atrocity of slavery and what the descendants of enslaved people still live with today.”
The report also affirms that 40 lords provost had links to slavery and half of them were elected during that time.
The council leader said: “The report reveals the money trail – how the tentacles of the slave economy reached far into Glasgow and helped build and shape this city.
It goes into a much deeper level than just what we see in front of us and talks about the legacy of enslavement in today’s Glasgow. And this must be publicly acknowledged.
“The discovery that a forerunner to the city council had investments in the Company of Scotland worth hundreds of millions of pounds in today’s money, and that more than 40 lord provosts benefited financially, is new and significant.
“So how do we reckon with these legacies? Another question we must ask ourselves is what permanent reminder should Glasgow create to recognise our role in this history?”
The report, led by Glasgow University’s Stephen Mullen, states 62 streets names in Glasgow relate to people that have benefited or supported slavery.
Aitken said: “We’ve long been aware of the association of many of our street names with that past but now we understand just how far and deep the slave economy money went and how many people and organisations were involved in that, including Glasgow City Council’s own ancestor organisation.
She added: “How do we respond to streets and monuments dedicated to people, or the very significant number of high-profile men, who owned or trafficked enslaved people?”
The research revealed that cash from slave profits given to the city totals £322 million in today’s money – this includes £110m that set up the Mitchell Library.
Aitken said: “These questions and many others should form part of a wide-ranging public conversation about the report, our legacy, and our response to it.”
A working group led by Jamaican councillor Graham Campbell has been set up by the city council.
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