Hansard

I thank all those members who signed the motion, enabling the debate to take place, and those who have stayed to take part in the debate. I also thank everyone who has offered their support and provided feedback on the idea.

Today, I will only scratch the surface of Inverclyde’s history in the transatlantic slave trade and why the museum should be located in my constituency.

At the outset, I clarify one point: although the Slave Trade Act 1807 prohibited the slave trade in the British empire, it did not abolish slavery, which continued until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which is the reason why I used that date in the motion. Also, according to black history month 2020, Scots owned nearly 30 per cent of the estates in Jamaica in 1796 and 32 per cent of the plantations by 1817.

I will touch on a few themes: Parliament’s decision in June; Inverclyde’s history; the initial proposal as per my motion; and the actions to date. On that point, I will touch on the fact that Canada has a national museum for human rights in Winnipeg, which Clare Adamson has spoken about in the chamber before and which I am sure she will touch on again today. I believe that that museum could be a positive model for us to look at.

I was not one of the speakers in the debate on showing solidarity with anti-racism in June, but I sat in the chamber and listened to everyone; it was a powerful afternoon. I was pleased that the Parliament voted to address our shameful past—a past that we can never change. Some people would like to erase our past or keep it confined to the shelves, but we must own up to it and educate future generations and ourselves about it. We must learn the lessons of the past and find a way that tells the history of the transatlantic slave trade and how some of Scotland’s wealth was created. Along with today’s announcement in Barbados, it is worth noting that that debate is taking place across the world.

I am not a historian, but a politician. I can never tell the history as historians do, but I can bring to the table political reasons why my constituency should be the location for such a museum.

Various locations in Scotland have played a part in the transatlantic slave trade. As well as Greenock, Port Glasgow and Glasgow, there were Ayr, Dumfries, Bo’ness, Leith, Dundee, and Aberdeen. Greenock and Port Glasgow were the two ports that served Glasgow and, with an increasing number of merchants in Glasgow, the two ports became key in the transatlantic slave trade. I grew up in Port Glasgow and I remember the stories of when the town was called the Port of Glasgow.

Inverclyde’s maritime history has many aspects, and many ships have been built there over the years. However, our maritime links include the sugar, tobacco and cotton industries, which are linked to the transatlantic slave trade. Until the 1750s, Port Glasgow was the main port for voyages to western Africa. Greenock became the larger of the ports and that continued until 1766. Greenock became the main port for the trade in tobacco and sugar. It has been reported that, in time, Greenock became the worldwide port for the sugar trade, although other reports indicate that it was just one of the biggest.

It is a fact that ships with enslaved people left Greenock and Port Glasgow. It is known that 2,692 enslaved people left the two ports to cross the Atlantic to work on plantations and that 471 of those people died during those voyages. I realise that the number of voyages, the number of people transported and the number of people who died on those voyages may not compare with other areas in the UK, such as Liverpool and Bristol, that—and I use the word advisedly—benefited from the slave trade and its associated industries. But that does not mean that this part of Scotland’s history should be only quietly reflected upon. Each of those people was a human being.

Scotland’s history in the transatlantic slave trade goes beyond that of just Greenock and Port Glasgow and it is right that a museum be created. The fact that Scotland is now prepared to fully face up to and to own its past is a welcome step.

There is a variety of reasons why a museum of human rights could be based at the sugar warehouses at James Watt dock. First, the history of the building as part of the sugar industry, which was built on the back of slavery, highlights that the wealth generated by the slave trade and associated industries is still visible today.

Secondly, the vast size of the building gives the opportunity to deliver something of educational stature. The building could be divided into multiple facilities, including the excellent and innovative proposition from the Clyde Atlantic trust to create a fully immersive maritime museum. There would be space for other activities too.

Thirdly, other parts of Scotland’s negative history could also be explored. For example, the stories of the Highland clearances and of the 1820 martyrs could be incorporated; both those stories have strong local connections. The museum could explore the story of why—in addition to those who left Leith—600,000 Scots left Greenock to go to the new world. There is also the history of Irish immigrants to Scotland and of how they were treated.

Those ideas could get people to imagine what we could achieve to educate future and current generations. Any museum must focus on the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism, as per the agreed amended motion passed here in June. That does not mean that the museum cannot touch upon other aspects of Scotland’s past.

Fourthly, the site is located at the historic James Watt dock in Greenock. Watt himself was not involved in the transatlantic slave trade, but he did profit from it.

Fifthly, the educational, social and economic opportunities for Inverclyde and Scotland are such that a project of this size could have a transformational effect on my constituency.

I studied in Dundee in the 1990s. It is wonderful to see the change that is happening there now and I am proud of that city for its level of ambition. Placing the museum in Inverclyde could transform it, bringing inward investment, reversing population decline and making Inverclyde socially and economically stronger.

The Scottish Government’s programme for government talks about starting to examine ways to address migration and to support areas dealing with population decline. I questioned the minister, Ben MacPherson, on that last week at the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee. The museum in Inverclyde could be part of that solution.

I have done a number of things so far. I have spoken to Sir Geoff Palmer and David Hayman. I have undertaken a variety of press activity, which has helped to garner wider support. I have also established a short-life working group that includes Ronnie Cowan MP; the principal of West College Scotland; Scottish Enterprise; the Inverclyde Chamber of Commerce; Creative Inverclyde; the Clyde Atlantic trust; singer-songwriter Matthew Hickman; and the television presenter Jean Johansson. I have also invited the leader of Inverclyde Council to join the group and we are hopeful that he can do so once internal council procedures are fulfilled.

I have also spoken with Lucy Casot of Museums Galleries Scotland, which is taking forward the project for the Scottish Government. Lucy will speak to the working party on Monday. The Heritage Lottery Fund has also been engaged and has agreed to speak virtually to the group. We have met three times and have an agreed purpose to bring this facility to Inverclyde.

We are discussing the sugar warehouses today and the process has begun. Greenock still has other historical buildings, including the glebe, which was a sugar refinery, and the tobacco warehouse. Those buildings are a stone’s throw from each other in Greenock town centre.

I am conscious of the time, Presiding Officer.

I was born in Barrow-in-Furness but grew up in Port Glasgow. It is still my home town, even though I no longer live there. As a boy, I never knew or questioned why we had a Kingston Yard in the town, or why there was a Jamaica Street, Tobago Street, Togo Place and Virginia Street in Greenock. I had no idea about the Gourock crest of arms and its links to the Darroch family, who made their fortune as sugar merchants in Jamaica in 1700s. That story was quite a revelation to many people locally during the summer.

A museum of human rights, focusing on the transatlantic slave trade, would not be out of place in Inverclyde. Sadly, we have many links to that trade—I have only touched on them. I would like to educate younger generations about the past to improve the future.

We can use the museum as the foundation stone on which to build a regeneration project that will breathe new life into an area that is much in need of a helping hand, that has suffered many social ills over many decades and is again reeling, this time from the effects of Covid-19.

I believe that a beacon of hope emerging from the clouds of Scotland’s past would be a fitting way to honour those whose lives were lost and taken by our inglorious colonial history.