The Persistence of Memory: Remembering Slavery in Liverpool, “Slaving Capital of the World” is impressive in scope because Jessica Moody brings together many different ways of memorializing the slave trade and slavery—a topic which is dominated by the role of museums and the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade. Moody's case study of Liverpool charts the memory of Liverpool's relationship with slavery from celebrations of slave traders, to active forgetting, to more recent “memory work” and public celebrations of Black culture as part of Black History Month and Slavery Remembrance Day.

Moody places Liverpool's public remembering of transatlantic slavery within a contextual chronology. In chapter 1, Moody investigates the ways in which histories have been written about Liverpool, and she centers on several tropes: the slaving capital of the world and the enterprising spirit of its slave merchants, overcoming abolition and “Merseypride” (see John Belchem, Merseypride: Essays in Liverpool Exceptionalism [2000]). In chapter 2, Moody argues that Liverpool's Black community (possibly communities?) should be explored in three ways. First, Liverpool's Black community should be seen as a legacy of Liverpool and slavery. Second, the historic Black experience in Liverpool is crucial to understanding the social and political context of Liverpool's public memory of its relationship with slavery. Third, Liverpool's Black community has consistently played significant roles in developing Liverpool's public history of Liverpool, especially around what has become known as “guerrilla memorialization” (see Alan Rice, “Tracing Slavery and Abolition's Routes and Viewing inside the Invisible: The Monumental Landscape and the African Atlantic,” Atlantic Studies 8, no. 2 [2011]: 253–74). These were all important as Liverpool's Black community both struggled to legitimize positive citizenship roles and make white people realize that slavery was not simply in the past.

In chapter 3, Moody considers anniversaries of the abolition of the slave trade in 1807—which often sat uncomfortably alongside Liverpool's celebration of its “birthday” of 1207. Indeed, in 2007, the national celebrations of abolitionists, sometimes tagged “Wilberfarce” (see for example Charles Forsdick, “Interpreting 2004: Politics, Memory, Scholarship,” Small Axe 27, no. 3 [2008]: 1–13), overshadowed Liverpool's 800th birthday events. This was of course a long way from the city's 700th birthday celebrations, which were an early exercise in heritage leisure and tourism. Indeed, in 1907 mention of the slave trade was actively censored and relegated to a slave trade car in favor of noting charitable contributions of slave traders, such as to the Blue Coat School. Likewise, in 1957, the abolitionist William Roscoe was celebrated as part of an attempt to help the city feel better after the devastation of World War II. A more concentrated analysis of the cult of Roscoe forms chapter 4. Roscoe was the local equivalent of the national “martyr-heroes” such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson (134). Yet ironically, even Roscoe's story was originally whitewashed as historians focused on his literary and botanical successes, before he was later reframed as an abolitionist. Both versions ignored the fact that he had previously been in a banking business with slave trader Thomas Leyland, and that another slave trader Arthur Heywood paid a massive £2,280, 9s 6d for a campaign ball on his behalf (the latter point is missed by Moody; see Sheryllynne Haggerty, The British-Atlantic Trading Community: Men, Women and the Distribution of Goods [2006], 138).

In chapter 5, Moody investigates the role of museums in the public history of Liverpool and slavery, and in particular the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery (opened 1994) to coincide with Black History Month, and the International Slavery Museum (opened 2007). Moody's analysis focuses on the difficult debates around whose museums these should be, who should be part of the process, whose perspective should be taken, who was the audience—and what effect it should have upon them. Another thorny issue was the depiction of Africa and Africans (problematic terms in themselves considering the range of cultures and languages), as the museums played a role in rehumanizing the story of slavery; this includes setting the precedent of the use of the phrase enslaved Africans. In chapter 6, Moody looks in detail at Liverpool's apology, Black History Month, and Slavery Remembrance Day. Serious lessons are to be learned. For example, the case of Councilor Mirna Juarez's role in Liverpool's apology (chapter 6), forces us to think about who speaks for Black communities in Britain and how sincere those apologies are perceived to be. Ironically, in celebrating Black achievements and culture, Black History Month and Slavery Remembrance Day often occlude slavery as they increasingly became part of a wider calendar of global celebratory events, and Liverpool's Black residents are ousted in favor of guest celebrities. In chapter 7, Moody investigates the myths and legends that perpetuate in the absence of any permanent memorial to slavery in Liverpool, among them, of the enslaved being held and sold in Liverpool and of slave prisons. Other issues include the important role that St. James’ Church might play as a potential memorial or museum and the ways in which the Nelson memorial might reflect contemporary concerns over slavery.

As a historian, I noticed places at which I would have liked more engagement with the history, rather than only the memory of that history—for example, around the discussion pertaining to the presence of enslaved people in Liverpool and the Nelson memorial—and I was surprised not to see Arline Wilson's book, William Roscoe: Commerce and Culture (2008), cited in chapter 4. However, writing a “history” per se was not Moody's main aim in writing this volume. More important are the vital lessons to be learned from Moody's close analysis of the relationship of Liverpool's various institutions with Liverpool's Black communities. Amid the current trend of various universities, councils, and private institutions investigating their relationship with historical slavery, this is a timely work. Considering that these studies of white institutions are usually led by white men (and often nonspecialists), this is essential reading for understanding the issues surrounding consulting and working with Black communities—those of African Caribbean descent, others with long histories in Britain, and those more recently migrated from African countries. Although Moody uses the term community for Liverpool's Black population, the case study of Juarez demonstrates that no one Black person can speak for all these communities.