23 August 2007
Gordon Brown has hailed the opening of the UK’s first slavery museum in Liverpool.
The International Slavery Museum was officially inaugurated today in celebration of the Bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade. It is currently the only museum of its kind outside North America.
Speaking ahead of the opening, the Prime Minister said that it would signal the start of bringing the story of slavery "into the mainstream of our cultural and historical understanding". The buying and selling of human beings in the slave trade was "one of the most barbaric practices in human history", he said.
"The notion that one human being could hold more value than another appalls us now, yet 200 years ago it was widely accepted. Slavery and the slave trade have left some painful legacies. We are still trying to come to terms with many of those today.
"Through that process of exploration and discovery we have seen a more informed debate emerge around the issue of slavery. It is a debate that has in turn raised awareness of the continuing problem of practices such as human trafficking in the modern world."
The transatlantic slave trade was abolished in 1807 after years of campaigning by figures such as William Wilberforce and Olaudah Equaino, though it was another 25 years before full emancipation was established across the whole of the British Empire.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) established 23 August as International Remembrance Day in honour of the Haitian rebellion of 1791 which led to the creation of the first independent Black republic of Haiti.
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