I am pleased to report that Oxford users now access to the online Records relating to the slave trade at the Liverpool Record Office (British Online Archives: British Records on the Atlantic World, 1700-1900) via SOLO and Databases A-Z.
This full-text database provides access to one of the best collections in British archives of private merchants’ papers relating to the transatlantic slave trade.
Liverpool was the leading slave trading port in the world in the eighteenth century when these documents were compiled.
The material includes
- correspondence with ship captains and Caribbean agents about the acquisition of Africans and their sale; statistics on the Liverpool slave trade
- sales accounts of the lots of Africans disembarked in the Americas, often with the names of purchasers and prices; information on dealings with diverse African groups along the coast of West Africa; and details of payments for slave sales.
- account books of ships’ voyages with material on the outfitting of vessels and the cargoes of goods exported to Africa.
- Records of the wealthy merchant and banker, Thomas Leyland (c.1752-1827), who was three times Mayor of Liverpool.
- Letters by the slave trade captain, John Newton (1725-1807), who later became a clergyman, the composer of the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’, and a prominent abolitionist.
Other useful resources
- Oxford Bibliographies OnLine (Atlantic History) (Oxford users only)
- Empire On-Line (Colonial History) (Oxford users only)
- The Papers of William Davenport & Co., 1745-1797 (Oxford users only)
- British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries 1500-1950 (Oxford users only)
- North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories (Oxford users only)
- North American Women’s Letters and Diaries (Oxford users only)
- Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
- Liverpool and the slave trade (National Museums Liverpool)
Enjoy! If you have any problems, please contact library staff.
