Many British cities and merchants benefited greatly from the Atlantic slave trade. Bristol, London, Glasgow, Manchester, and Liverpool saw economic growth and development due to slavery. Slave ships left from ports in these cities, creating jobs in dockyards. Merchants grew wealthy trading slaves or goods made by slaves, investing profits into buildings and industries. The slave trade financed sectors like sugar refining in Bristol, banking and shipping in London, cloth mills in Manchester dependent on slave-grown cotton, and shipbuilding and warehouses in Liverpool, the main British port for slave ships. Individual merchants also amassed fortunes, like Thomas Leyland of Liverpool who fiercely opposed abolishing slavery.

2. LEARNING INTENTIONS
• Describe how British cities benefitted from the
Atlantic Slave Trade
• Describe examples of British merchants who
benefitted from the slave trade

3. Although slavery took place in the Americas, European countries
were at the heart of the trade, including Britain. Many British cities
and people became very rich due to slavery.

4. Many parts of Britain
benefitted from slavery.
This includes various cities
such as:
• Bristol
• London
• Glasgow
• Manchester
• Liverpool

5. Bristol
Huge numbers of slave ships
left from Bristol, creating jobs
in the city’s docks.
Bristol was also involved in
the sugar industry. Many
local people found jobs
refining sugar for sale.

6. Many merchants in Bristol
became wealthy through
selling slaves or products
grown by them.
They often used this money
to construct grand
buildings such as homes,
and even Bristol’s Theatre
Royal was funded by slave
owners.

7. London
For 1663-1698, London was
the only British city allowed
to trade African slaves.
London was a major port
for slave ships, creating jobs
in the docks and also
transporting slave goods.

8. The slave trade also helped set
up businesses in London
which still exist today.
Finance organisations such as
Lloyd’s, Barclays Bank,
Barings Bank and the Bank of
England helped provide
finance to merchants. This
created jobs and profits for
their owners.

9. Profits from the trade were
invested in buildings.
London’s West India Docks
were built using slave money.
Hospitals were funded by
slave merchants too. This
created more jobs in the city
and also helped improve
healthcare too.

10. Glasgow
Many merchants that lived in
Glasgow made huge profits
from selling slave products,
especially tobacco.
A small number of slave ships
also left from the city too,
although none after 1766.

11. Some jobs in Glasgow also
relied on money made
through the slave trade.
The city’s dye industry –
which involved making
dyes for clothes – was
funded by men who made
money from slavery, such
as John Glassford.

12. Buildings in the city also
changed due to the money
made from slavery.
Parts of the Merchant City
were funded by profits
from selling slave products,
and grand homes were
built on the city’s outskirts
too, in places such as
Newton Mearns.

13. Manchester
Manchester benefitted from
slave produce.
Many jobs existed in the
city’s mills that produced
cloth. This was often
exchanged for African
slaves by traders during the
Triangular Trade.

14. The city’s mills also heavily
relied on cotton grown in
the Americas by slaves,
creating more jobs.
Manchester’s art galleries
and museums also
benefitted as people who
made money from slavery
made donations of money
and artwork.

15. Liverpool
Liverpool was the main British
port for slave ships, creating
many jobs in the docks.
Liverpool also sold many of
the products that were grown
by slaves, creating even more
jobs in warehouses and
transportation.

16. Liverpool had a major role in
shipbuilding, building and
repairing many slave ships,
and again creating large
numbers of jobs.
Liverpool also benefitted
from better transport links
such as railways, to allow
slave goods to be
transported across Britain.

17. Thomas Leyland was one of the
richest men in Liverpool.
He was a small-time merchant
but expanded his business to
sell slaves.
Leyland was involved in
politics, including as Liverpool’s
mayor. He fiercely argued
against abolishing slavery.

18. Many other British
merchants made a great deal
of money from the slave
trade.
This was either from directly
selling slaves, or from
trading in the goods and
products that slaves were
used to grow.

19. Sir James Stirling of Keir
came from Perth. His family
owned slave plantations in
Jamaica.
Richard Oswald was a
Scottish merchant who set
up one of the most active
slave trading posts in Africa.
He owned slave ships too.