William Roscoe (1753-1831) was a banker, lawyer, and politician who was elected as MP for Liverpool in 1806 on an abolitionist ticket. He was also a poet, historian, writer, and art collector, and used his public and political influence to campaign for social reform, in particular the abolition of slavery. His efforts led to significant changes in public policy, including the Slave Trade Act 1807, Slave Trade Felony Act 1811, and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

Through these programmes of legislation, slavery and the slave industry were outlawed in the British Empire, as well as Britain being compelled to oppose slavery in other nations and to push for a world-wide change in policy. Slave traders were classified as pirates, and all British Empire slaves were emancipated by August 1838.

Part of the abolitionists’ bills led to a compensation package for slave owners, amounting to £20 million (4.4% of GDP, equivalent of £120bn in 2019). There was no compensation or reparation offered to the slaves themselves.

Roscoe was also a pioneer in supporting other aspects of social justice, including women’s rights. In the late 18th century he established the Liverpool Athenaeum, a private member’s club. In 1800 he established the Athenaeum Library, to which women were admitted as members.

Across Liverpool and the wider Merseyside region various landmarks and streets are names in honour of William Roscoe, including Roscoe Avenue in Newton-le-Willows, just off the A49 (Mill Lane).

Sir John Gladstone (1764-1851) was a Scottish sugar merchant, and one of the biggest slave owners of the British Empire. He acquired large plantations in Jamaica and Demerara, using thousands of enslaved Africans for labour.

Sir John’s youngest son William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) was a liberal politician serving 4 terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the late 19th Century. He was opposed to the international slave trade, and unlike his father was in support of eventual emancipation of all slaves. In June 1833 he used one of his early speeches in parliament during a debate on “the slavery question” to propose a “safe and gradual emancipation”. During the abolition of slavery he helped to secure a financial settlement for all slave owners, including his father who benefitted by over £100,000 for the 2,500 slaves he owned in the plantations - equivalent to around £85m in 2019.

By 1850 William Ewart Gladstone had moved his position significantly from that of his father. In Parliament he described slavery as “by far the foulest crime that taints the history of mankind in any Christian or pagan country.”

The Gladstone family founded and continue to support a large number of philanthropic projects in and around Liverpool, including the magnificent Gladstone’s library in Flintshire. You can read more about the Library and the Gladstone family’s views on their family history here.

Many local towns and landmarks are named after various members of the Ashton family, dating back to the 14th Century. John Ashton (1711-59) was a cheesemonger who built up sufficient resources to buy the Dungeon salt works near Hale, and to invest in the lucrative Atlantic Slave trade. The profits from this were used to subsidise the construction of the Sankey Canal, opening in 1757 with Ashton owning 43% of the shares.

His son Nicholas (pictured) was disinterested in the slave trade, and widely supported liberal abolitionist politicians. He used the family fortune to diversify into coal, buying mines in Parr, St Helens.

John Blackburne (c.1693 - 1786) was originally from Orford, near Warrington. He was mayor of Liverpool in 1760, a botanist with an extensive collection of exotic plants including some of the earliest English specimens of  pineapple, coffee, tea and sugarcane. He was also a salt merchant and slave trader, as well as investing with John Ashton in canal infrastructure. He died in 1786 and was buried at St Oswald's Church, Winwick.

Many slave traders diversified their business interests to take advantage of booming industries in the area, including banking, shipbuilding, rope-making and coal mining. Through this activity it is clear that many areas of local industrialisation are founded upon profits from the slave trade and enslaved labour in plantations.

The Earle Family of Liverpool were heavily involved in slavery and the slave trade over four generations, as slave ship owners, captains, and plantation landlords. John Earle (1674-1749) came to Liverpool from Warrington in 1688, and by 1700 had established his own business trading in various commodities including an interest in the slave trade, which would continue in the family for over a century.

John was Mayor of Liverpool in 1709. His youngest son William (1721-1788) became captain of the slave ship Chesterfield in 1751.

John’s grandson Thomas (1754-1822) and his sons continued the family business, and in the 1830s the family acquired additional plantations in Guyana (formerly British Guiana).

Hardman Earle (1792-1877) was John’s great-grandson. He inherited the family businesses, including a number of plantations run with enslaved labour. He was compensated by around £19,000 (around £2.5m in 2019) upon the abolition of slavery. He was the director of the London and North Western Railway, and the town of Earlestown is named in his honour.