Whether an individual or an institution, we all have a past, and as we move forward, we carry it with us. This past cannot be changed, but the way we look at and understand it can. Now, to honour our values and commitment to social responsibility, we have a duty to unpack the University’s past and face its more challenging truths.
Manchester’s booming ‘Cottonopolis’
Our predecessor institutions, which would become the Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), were formed on the heels of the Industrial Revolution that fuelled the city’s rapid expansion. Such was the staggering success of its textile industry, Manchester was nicknamed ‘Cottonopolis’. However, the wealth generated for the city during this boom was made possible by enslaved people working on cotton plantations thousands of miles away.
The root of the textile industry was the cotton shipped in huge quantities from the United States to ports all over the world. The first US Census shows that very little cotton was grown in the country up to 1790 – less than a century later it was responsible for two-thirds of the world’s supply.
Some 1.8 million slaves were forced to plant, grow and harvest the valuable crops. As well as tending the cotton plants, many of these people were sold, moved across state boundaries and put to work clearing land for new plantations – separated from their families and loved ones in the process. Work and life on the plantations was brutal. Many were beaten and starved. Many lost their lives.
We know that some Manchester businesses have recorded links to the slave voyages that gathered, imprisoned and enslaved the people of West and Central Africa and shipped them to the Americas. While the University did not own slaves directly, with its predecessor institutions being founded before the UK’s Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 it did benefit from the funds generated by the trade of enslaved peoples.
Examining our historic connections to the slave trade
In 2021, Dr Natalie Zacek, Senior Lecturer in American Studies, along with Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility, published their analysis of the historic connections between early benefactors of the University and the global slave trade. Among these was Benjamin Heywood, a founder and the first Chairman and President of the Manchester Mechanics’ Institute, later UMIST, whose ancestors had investments in more than 100 slave voyages.
Benefactors Robert and John Leigh Philips came from family wealth generated by slave-produced products from the West Indies. Robert provided funds to establish the Manchester Mechanics’ Institute, while John collected many of the specimens of natural history that are now part of Manchester Museum.
Another founder, William Gladstone, was made a trustee of Owens College in 1871 after purchasing the land it was built on. Several earlier generations of the Gladstone family were slave owners and, following the Abolition Act, they received substantial compensation for their ‘loss of property’.
Owens College, a predecessor of the Victoria University of Manchester, was built on the estate of John Owens, whose family business activities included slave-produced goods and the trade of plantation-grown cotton. And John Rylands, whose widow Enriqueta used her inherited wealth to found and stock the John Rylands Research Institute and Library in his name, grew his fortune thanks to his company’s use of slave-grown crops.
"IT’S ABOUT A SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE, AND GROUNDING WHERE THE UNIVERSITY WANTS TO GO IN THE FUTURE. IT’S PART OF OUR LARGER MISSION OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY."
An example trademark for Rylands & Sons Ltd., John Rylands’ textile business, Rylands and Sons Archive: RYL/1/3/2
Engaging with the past to secure a more equitable future
The links between our benefactors and slavery are not direct, but they are links nonetheless. While our founders dedicated significant sums of their wealth to philanthropic ventures, the money was inextricably linked to the cotton grown in US slave states, including Georgia and South Carolina.
These connections were the focus of the Rylands’ 2023–24 exhibition, Founders and Funders, which used artefacts from the University’s collections to tell the stories of five of its most significant founders and funders, and their ties to transatlantic slavery.
The result of two years of work by a diverse team of History master’s students, Founders and Funders was the Rylands’ first student-led exhibition to be hosted at the Library. Many of the postgraduates who worked on the exhibition have gone on to secure work in the heritage sector.
Lecturer in International History, Dr Kerry Pimblott, who initiated the exhibition, reflects: “This story is one about a new generation of dynamic researchers who are interested in critically engaging with the past to ensure that our University, city region, and history and heritage sector professions move forward in a more just and equitable fashion.”
Seeking knowledge and understanding
Our past informs who we are today, and what we will become next. “Without understanding how our past affects present inequalities, our work in addressing discrimination and inequality today is diminished,” says Professor Thakkar.
Dr Zacek agrees. “How can we say that we’re going to be socially responsible if we don’t want to talk about topics that might be embarrassing or unappealing?” she asks.
“The founders of this university were not terrible human beings,” she continues. “I think they were mostly philanthropists who were concerned with helping bright working-class young men do better in life. This isn’t an exercise in telling people they are bad, or that their ancestors were bad, or that you can’t respect the good things someone has done in their life because of their ancestral connections to slavery. It’s about understanding, because we don’t really understand where we came from. And we’re a university! We’re supposed to seek knowledge.”
Where do we go from here?
“We can’t undo the past; we can’t make slavery not have happened,” says Zacek. “But we know where cotton came from. Many of the cottongrowing areas of the American South are still mostly poor; are still having trouble with public health access. Many of the Black people who live there today are the descendants of enslaved cotton workers. What can the University do for them? How can we use our expertise?”
There is also much we can be – and are – doing closer to home. Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is recognised in the University’s vision and strategic plan, Our future, and is a priority for our community. Our EDI policy is a commitment to growing and maintaining an environment in which every member of our community feels respected and valued, and where equality is assured.
Support for our community is not limited to our campus, and we’re also working with our spin-out charity, Manchester Histories, to explore both the brightest moments and darkest chapters of the city’s past. As part of our commitment to acknowledging this history and encouraging an open dialogue on these issues, we added new signage at the Rylands that recognises its benefactors’ links to the transatlantic slave trade, and we will continue to address our own, and the city’s, legacy.
Speaking of our ongoing journey, Zacek concludes: “It’s about a search for knowledge, and grounding where the University wants to go in the future. It’s part of our larger mission of social responsibility.”
"WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING HOW OUR PAST AFFECTS PRESENT INEQUALITIES, OUR WORK IN ADDRESSING DISCRIMINATION AND INEQUALITY TODAY IS DIMINISHED."
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