Liverpool, Slavery and The Beatles: Modern Black Atlantic History

"As we write the 20th century what is the role of the Beatles - four white guys from Liverpool UK - in modern Black Atlantic history?" I feel a sense of betrayal when I recall that in the 1960s and later American kids made quite wealthy a group of young men from a city called Liverpool. And in recent years scholars of American popular music and culture have discovered the high cost of the "Liverpool music" phenomenon to the careers and livelihoods of U.S. musicians - especially Black American R&B groups of the 1960s. More than that, I freely admit I was one of these 'ahistorical' youth, though in most respects I wasn't really ahistorical. We simply hadn't a clue about Liverpool's earlier role in deporting, shipping, trading and enslaving our ancestors and those of millions more African descendants in the Americas. I loved the Beatles' music. I bought their records. I saw A Hard Day's Night. My friend Angeline and I even took Paul and John (Angeline and myself, respectively) as alter egos. Don't ask why exactly, but we really were into it and in a way our respective choices were on target. I think very few people in America "put two and two together" back then. I would be intensely curious to know whether any historian or social critic in any country ever attempted to put into the broader Black Atlantic context various interpretations of the meaning of the arrival in the Americas of a group of young Liverpudlian men. In America, apparently, we young Black, Native American, White, Latino and Asian American youth had no idea we were part of a longstanding socio-historical process between the US and UK - a system which without doubt was postcolonial contrary to opinions of some current observers [see my note below on Deepika Bahri's exclusion of postcolonial experience in the US]. Point of history: Among other settlements, in 1607 English settlers founded the Jamestown colony (Virginia). Over in the UK did the Beatles or anyone else reflect upon all this? It seems that even in the late 20th century and on both sides of the pond we still were part of the uninterrupted Atlantic relationship that conspired to silence and 'not remembering'. In the US there had to be those who knew this history and yet they said nothing, let alone jog public memory and foster discourse. More than a few Black American youth - including myself - were buying Beatles' records, singing their songs, we watched them on Ed Sullivan and stood in long lines to pay them to get into their concerts. We never asked - nor did we have means to do so - what Ringo, Paul, George or John thought of Black people - Black Americans, Africans, African Caribbeans, African Canadians or Black British - and of our post-slave-trade societies. We never asked what The Beatles thought of our history or of their own or of their intersections. Nor did we ask what they knew or thought of Liverpool's wildly lucrative links to Africa and the slave trade. Fast forward to 2006. Like the October 2005 STAMP project on the docks of Lancaster near the Millenium Bridge, does Liverpool have a public memorial to the way this city constructed and equipped itself from wealth acquired through catching, shipping and selling captive Blacks? Do Paul McCartney, George Harrison or Ringo Starr, or Sean Lennon or Yoko Ono Lennon or the John Lennon estate for that matter even care that these roots formed the cornerstone of Liverpool history? It's been almost a half century since four young musicians from Liverpool arrived on the shores of America and received an unbiased and unprecedented welcome. In turn that welcome afforded them the means, if not the responsibility, to contribute and to help make our common future different and better than our common past.

In her Introduction to Postcolonial Studies Deepika Bahri at Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia, United States) contends: "... the United States might also be described as a postcolonial country, but it is not perceived as such because of its position of power in world politics in the present, its displacement of native American populations, and its annexation of other parts of the world in what may be seen as a form of colonization."

In all sincerity, what about Black Americans? Bahri never even mentions either the presence or dual modes that brought most Black Americans into the heart of US experience, history and society. Our dual modes include ARRIVAL (mostly through the slave trade from Africa) and CREATION. We are a uniquely created people - tri-racial: African, American Indian + European, and in some cases bi-racial: African+European and multi-racial: the previous combination + other ethnicities. (Like our cousins in other parts of the Americas, some Black Americans have relatively little ethnic admixture other than African.) What of Hurricane Katrina and the displacement of the entire majority-Black population of New Orleans, La as well as other parts of Mississippi & Alabama on the Gulf Coast; racial disparities in the death penalty and in imprisonment rates for similar offences, also long-term imprisonment & even execution of those later found innocent; PIC: Prison-industrial complex"; US federal "war on drugs"; "Jim Crow" & legalised racial segregation - 'separate but equal'. The list goes on.

Comments

[Joe Robinson]

Whilst the City of Liverpool (of which I am an inhabitant) has only just come to terms with and publicly apologised (through the City Council) for it's part in the appalling slave trade, The Beatles themselves were always aware of it's repercussions.

They can in no way themselves be blamed for the lack of commercial interest by some white middle class Americans in the Afro-american soul and R'n'B of the late 50's onwards.

The Beatles themselves and many Liverpudlians both black and white were brought up on this music and the Beatles specifically stated the beneficial influence black music from America had on their own development.

Indeed, not only did they back the great Liverpool black vocal group The Chants (later to find success as The Real Thing), but they actively promoted black music via their own early cover versions, both before fame came their way and afterwards.

It was the great Berry Gordy himself of Tamla Motown who thanked the Beatles for raising the profile of his own artistes across the United States and in the UK.

Again, John, Paul, George and Ringo were four intelligent young men who quickly realised that the draft dodging issue of Vietnam and the fight for black civil liberties were intertwined.

Liverpool people themselves often suffer from a kind of regional 'racism' here in the UK, and along with the Irish are considered by many other English people as somehow less than respectable, whilst the fact of the matter is that they are a warm and friendly and down to earth people, as anyone who visits the city will testify. Of course the city still has it's problems with race like any other great connurbation...but tarring us all with the same historical brush is a form of bigotry in itself.

[Jayne]

I came across this site by chance..
I am from Liverpool and I work in music and culture.
Liverpool acknowledges its role in the slave trade but at the same time refuses to acknowledge the effect that this has had on the racial dynamics of the city today. The Beatles grew up in Liverpool's white suburbs but were deeply influenced by their life as art students living in the cosmopolitan inner city area of Toxteth. Here they had many Black friends who accompanied them on their early travels to Hamburg etc. In Liverpool today most of the black community is of mixed heritage. I am white in colour but my family arrived in Liverpool from Bermuda having been slaves of the Virginia Tobacco company.
They were of Native American and African mix. Once in Liverpool the next generation married Italian and the next Irish. African/Irish heritage is the most common racial mix in the city as the Blacks and the Irish lived in the same ghetto. The AFRO-CELTS. Today the contribution of the Beatles is acknowledged via a festival that happens every August. The festival celebrates the cities WHITE music traditions. The fact that no Black music has managed to break out of the city is very telling. This year we tried to add a Black urban music section to the weekend but the police have banned the event.As the city still fears its Black community especially its Black youth... it is really deep rooted and goes back to the cities slave trade days.
John Lennon would be turning in his grave.
Black music was the beetles passion and their greatest influence.

[Jayne]

I came acroos this site by chance..
I am from Liverpool and i work in music and culture.
Liverpool acknowledges its role in the slave trade but at the same time refuses to acknowledge the effect that this has had on the racial dynamics of the city today. The Bealtles grew up in liverpools white suburbs but were deeply influanced by their life as art students living in the cosmopolitain inner city area of Toxteth. Here they had many Black friends who accompanied them on their early travels to Hamburg etc. In Liverpool today most of the black community is of mixed heratge. I am white in colour but my family arrived in Liverpool from Bermuda having been slaves of the Virginia Tobacco company.
They were of Native American and African mix. Once in Liverpool the next genaration married Italian and the next Irish. African/Irish heratigae is the most common racial mix in the city as the Blacks and the Irish lived in the same ghetto. The AFRO-CELTS. Today the contribution of the Beatles is acknowledged via a festival that happens every August. The festival celebrates the cities WHITE music traditions. The fact that no Black music has managed to break out of the city is very telling. This year we tried to add a Black urban music section to the weekend but the police have banned the event.As the city still fears its Black community especially its Black youth... it is really deep rooted and goes back to the cities slave trade days.
John Lennon would be turning in his grave.
Black music was the beatles passion and their greatest influance.

[Gwynn]

I stumbled upon this from searching the internet for something else. I would just like to let you know that there is a world history museum in Liverpool, which acknowledges the fact that the city played a major role in the slave trade in the past. It has a section on that issue.

[buddy don]

fassinatin post, ma'am. i jes finished readin a book by bob spitz on the beatles. one of the most surprisin thangs is how the granparnts of john n paul all cum to englund durin the irish tater famine (1846-50). 1.5 millyun folks resettled in england they lived in liverpools irish slums (on a counta the english dont much keer fer irish folk). so i aint shore how much the beatles ancestors tuck part in liverpools slave tradin. my only point is how all this shows jes how tangled everthang is. they wuz sartinly british by the time ye wuz a fan.

ye post sum verr innerestin thoughts, as usual.

take keer
bd