Our links to the slave trade

As port towns, Greenock and Port Glasgow in particular have strong links with ship building and the sugar trade.

Greenock in particular was a highly successful mercantile town dubbed at one time ‘Sugaropolis’.

Many of the civic leaders of the time were merchants and many of the land owning families were involved in the slave economy in one way or another.

University College London (UCL) has created a database as part of their project, ‘legacies of British slave-ownership’ which highlights properties, places and people across the UK connected with the slave trade.

The project and research database can be accessed here and includes locations across Inverclyde: www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/

Inverclyde Council is currently examining, through the Watt Institution and McLean Museum archives, the areas links to slavery.

P117 James Watt Dock