A note on Liverpool’s slave trade history | Letters

Historian Laurence Westgaph responds to a letter suggesting that there was a purpose-built slave pen' in the city

Liverpool is undoubtedly the most fitting place for a permanent national memorial to the victims of slavery, as a city shaped by the slave trade more than any other in the country. However, I have not seen any evidence to suggest that there were any purpose-built slave pens" in the town (Letters, 13 December).

An advert for the sale of One Negro Man and Two Boys" in Liverpool that took place in 1767 refers to the individuals being brought up to the place of sale to be viewed", possibly indicating that they were being kept in a cellar, but currently we can only speculate as to how these people were confined while waiting to be sold as human chattel.