WHO IS THE SLAVE

[Gerry]

They dragged me from my homeland
Then tied me up in chains
With whips and rods they beat us
They fed us like animals in a pen

In stinking ships they crammed us
With rags upon our backs
To freezing Liverpool warehouses
To stand before the buyers

Shivering from fear or cold
It was to hard to tell
They dragged us here like cattle
Their only goal to sell

They checked our teeth like horses
Our skin for the disease
Then back in the hold and off we went
To the land of the free

I worked in fields of cotton
And lived in houses of wood
The master he beat us daily
Then prayed to God to be good

That nation we made stronger
Our sweat and toil prevailed
Now we lose our lives in far of lands
For the black the US needs

By Gerry Temple
Copyright January 2008

[John(Zappa)]

Simon Cowell's twin here....
Put the pen down mate and do yerself a favour.
WHO'S THE DADDY!!!:)

[Libertarian]

Gerry its good that you should send it to the Slavery museum

[buggedboy]

Good poem, although if I'm not mistaken it is factually incorrect.

No slaves ever passed through Liverpool at any time as far as I know. Liverpool was the starting point, where other materials were taken down to Africa before picking up slaves and going off across the Atlantic.

Liverpool was certainly essential in the overall process, but there was no "market" here as such.

[taffy]

They dragged me from my homeland
Then tied me up in chains
With whips and rods they beat us
They fed us like animals in a pen

In stinking ships they crammed us

By Gerry Temple
Copyright January 2008

Gerry, I see you're in Donegal. What about a poem about all those Irish slaves captured and taken to North Africa by the Moslems

[Steven]

Hi Taffy,

Gerry does live in Donegal but this week he is staying with me in a very cold Liverpool. Yesterday I took him and his wife on a river cruise where he heard the story of Liverpool's involvement with the slave trade. I'm sure this inspired him to write his poem above.

[taffy]

Hi Taffy,

Gerry does live in Donegal but this week he is staying with me in a very cold Liverpool. Yesterday I took him and his wife on a river cruise where he heard the story of Liverpool's involvement with the slave trade. I'm sure this inspired him to write his poem above.

Thanks Steven. I admire Gerry's ability to write a poem in so short a time. Perhaps a trip to Baltimore on the way home will give him similar inspiration to write about the Irish Slaves captured by the Moslems. I doubt they paid the local Irish King for them though !!! Then of course there's a trip to Dublin for inspiration about the Irish slaves captured by the Vikings.

[Ged]

Buggedboy and Taffy spot on.

So many myths about the Goree supposedly having chains for slaves and even the Nelson memorial slaves in Exchange flags (who are French prisoners of war not slaves)

Glad you are enjoying your stay with Steven though Gerry and getting inspired.

[Chris48]

Buggedboy and Taffy spot on.

So many myths about the Goree supposedly having chains for slaves and even the Nelson memorial slaves in Exchange flags (who are French prisoners of war not slaves)

Glad you are enjoying your stay with Steven though Gerry and getting inspired.

I don't claim to be an expert on slavery but the 'Dickey Sam' book from my recollection talks of slaves being sold on the steps of Customs House in Liverpool. Although it is anonymous it is sold and promoted by Liverpool museum.

[Ged]

On the Roger Phillips Radio Merseyside phone-in, one scholar claimed to have been told 'get your facts right' when he played down Liverpool's role in 'handling' slaves on its land - this after him getting into an altercation. He did just that, studying the subject at Liverpool's record office. We can not condone the transactions of what went on in that triangle of death, however some myths do need to be dispelled. Slavery was rife worldwide back then by other European countries too - the muslim slaves trade started well before and lasted a long longer too - some might say they still do. The scholar unearthed that Liverpool's wealth during the slave years was more to do with our trade with the Isle of Man and Ireland than slavery which served only the 'priviledged few'

Roger Phillips himself later looked into it, never one just to take anyones word and it was found that less than 20 African slaves were ever brought into Liverpool, remembering of course that that part of the triangle which collected slaves from Africa (who were not all captured but many rounded up by tribal chiefs for profit themselves) went straight to the Americas. A book called white gold tells of the muslim captured Irish - some of them from whole towns in the Southern most parts of Southern Ireland.

[Steven]

Interesting

[Gerry]

Some people seem to be very touchy about the slave trade.

It went on.
It went on around the world.
It STILL goes on.
It's STILL wrong.

I wrote about what I heard and seen yesterday. I went to the slave exhibition in the Albert docks today and seen in more graphic detail man's inhumanity to man.

[taffy]

I don't claim to be an expert on slavery but the 'Dickey Sam' book from my recollection talks of slaves being sold on the steps of Customs House in Liverpool. Although it is anonymous it is sold and promoted by Liverpool museum.

The Liverpool Slavery Museum also claims with no evidence that Penny Lane was named after the Liverpool slave trader James Penny. Just because it's in a museum, doesn't mean it's true !!

[Gerry]

Do we all agree that slavery is wrong?

Yes?

End of discussion.