Liverpool's Revenge

[Gerry]

It was a windy January morning
when he took us for a stroll
Down and around the Albert dock
Now that's a windy hole

The magnificant red stone buildings
That hid their wicked past
Of slavery and misery
Thank God it's gone at last

But remembering the hill top fort
He had the final laugh
When he took us on the Ferry
Now there's a SERIOUS draft

My ears these stung like nettles
My brain it started to freeze
My nose became a river
And I couldn't feel below my knees

So whenever he returns
To our home town on the Foyle
I'll have to think up a scheme
To make poor Steven boil

[lottie]

Hahahaha, very good, i can picture the scene AND the conversation about the fort hahahaha

[lindylou]

Ha,ha, that's a good little poem Gerry. :)

[Waterways]

It was a windy January morning
when he took us for a stroll
Down and around the Albert dock
Now that's a windy hole

The magnificant red stone buildings
That hid their wicked past
Of slavery and misery
Thank God it's gone at last


I know it only a poem, however as slavery was abolished in 1807, there is little left of Liverpool docks that predates 1807 - certainly no buildings. The Albert Dock dates from the 1840s.

[shytalk]

I know it only a poem, however as slavery was abolished in 1807, there is little left of Liverpool docks that predates 1807 - certainly no buildings. The Albert Dock dates from the 1840s.

Well said Waterways. The museums perpetuate the myths by telling half the story. Never a mention of the tribal chiefs who sold their own people.

[Gerry]

I'm sure that everyone that toiled and sweated in those huge warehouses for little money and no rights to make a few people extremely wealthy would be very glad to see you are so concerned that a wee poem written in 2008 about how cold our visit to the beautiful city of Liverpool wasn't strictly historicly accutrate, in YOUR opinion.

I'm sure all the decendants of dock workers think their fathers werer treated with dignity and respect by their masters as they gathered every day to have the "honour" of getting a tap on the shoulder and being allowed to sweat blood for a few shillings from the rich man.

There's a lot more to slavery than a few million black people taken in chains from Africa. Many more million of white people were slaves to the same slave masters.

[birdseye]

You're absolutely correct Gerry. Unfortunately the word "slavery" when used in connection with Liverpool has only one meaning these days, which is why posters jumped to the defence of the city. People here have become tired of being expected to carry the blame for the real slave trade, two hundred years after it was abolished and not everyone in the city was overjoyed at the establishment of a museum devoted to the subject.

You're right in what you say about workers treated like slaves on the docks. There won't be many families in this city who did not have a relative in the not too distant past who began their working day by standing in a pen like an animal, hoping to be selected for a day of back-breaking work in filthy and dangerous conditions

Excellent poem.

[Kolchak]

Nice poem Gerry,

Brings some nice imagery of around the Pier Head and the crosing, having your breath taken by those icy blasts of wind.



Its unfortunate about that the word slave and it's connotations with Liverpool has become a focus, but I suppose it points out that we'd all do well to remember that slavery affected more than the African continent.