Slavery and Abolition

Dr Micheal Morris, Liverpool John Moore University

Glasgow’s George Square was laid out in 1781 and the statues, erected between 1819 and 1902, are designed to celebrate scientists, writers, military figures, politicians and royals But these sculptures and monuments largely tell
a sanitised story of Empire – whether a clean story of trade from the Clyde, or an orderly procession of colonised peoples paying tribute to a monarch. Doctor Michael Morris’s walk and talk looks to highlight a more difficult context and to provide counter-narrative to this cleaned up history. Join him as he reveals a hidden history of Scotland’s complicated involvement in slavery associated with each and every one of the statues on display.