Why these two dock in particular?Originally Posted by dazza
Why these two dock in particular?
Well, there were only five or so docks in Liverpool at the height of the slave trade. They were:
The Old Dock (opened 1715)
Canning Dock (opened 1732)
Salthouse Dock (opened 1753)
Georges Dock (opened 1771)
Queens Dock and Kings Dock (opened 1785)*
The Old Dock was probably used for the slave trade because it was the only dock in Liverpool when it began. As for Georges Dock, I cannot tell you why.
Dukes Dock (opened 1773) was a private dock, mainly dealing with canal traffic.
Going from this...
By the 1730s about 15 ships a year were leaving for Africa and this grew to about 50 a year in the 1750s, rising to just over a 100 in each of the early years of the 1770s. Numbers declined during the American War of Independence (1775-1783), but rose to a new peak of 120-130 ships annually in the two decades preceding the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. Probably three-quarters of all European slaving ships at this period left from Liverpool. Overall, Liverpool ships transported half of the three million Africans carried across the Atlantic by British slavers.
...the dates don't seem quite right to favour those two docks.
Also, since the slaves were generally not on board in Liverpool, why would one dock be preferred over any other?
Isn't it just a transatlantic goods shipping issue at Liverpool?
The link is here for the quote...
http://www.liverpoolinpictures.com/S..._Liverpool.htm
Yes, it largely depended on the goods as each dock had sligtly different warehouses. The Kings Dock was mainly a tobacco dock, for instance. The Queens dock was timber from the Baltic Sea. Georges Dock is recorded in 1812 as being mainly 'west india ships', i'm guessing sugar...
I don't know why someone would single out The Old Dock and Georges Dock in particular.
So the roads coming off the Strand and running between the Port of Liverpool and Cunard and Cunard and Royal Liver Buildings are actually bridges then?
Sean
ex of Henley Street, then Vine House, Seaforth.
Now in Rotherhithe London - been here for 18 years but still not convinced - must go home at some point!
The Old Dock and George's Dock have both been mentioned as being receptacles of the West India trade. I'll dig out the exact sources. Although I'll add they weren't exclussively used just for the guinea trade alone. They dealt with all trade, as there were too few docks to be specialised at this stage in Liverpool's development. This is not to say that other docks weren't used as well as the slave trade continued until 1807. Fortinian has already mentioned that the later larger docks were tied to particular trades, King's Dock and tobacco, as mentioned previously.
The West India trade - ships would be loaded with merchandise [often paid via share subscription] to trade in Africa. The purchased slaves, themselves, were transported during the dreaded middle passage to the West Indies, and the spoils of the exchange were then later received back in Liverpool, which included Sugar, Rum, Cotton, Coffee etc... Occasionally, captains would bring back with them negro children, sometimes adults [who often worked as the captain's servant] to be auctioned off in the cities Coffee Houses, and who were destined to work in the wealthy Georgian Households as pages, footmen, or ladies attendant, and would be similar to an indentured servant.
Merchant's Coffee House, (by St. Nicholas church) was at the north-east end of George's Dock, and was the site of one of the last publically recorded auctions of slaves in Liverpool/ Britain.
I'll post the sources, once I've reread the material.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."... ... ... Mark Twain.
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