Manchester’s hidden Black history is stepping out of the shadows and onto the pavement through a series of guided heritage trails and walking tours. Designed to restore erased chapters of the city’s past, these routes connect local landmarks to the lives of the people whose labor built an industrial powerhouse, as well as the city’s deep-rooted ties to transatlantic slavery.
Led by local historians and urban experts, the initiative highlights how Manchester evolved on the back of cotton produced by enslaved Africans, while also celebrating centuries of Black activism, abolitionist movements, and cultural milestones in the city. The upcoming Heritage in Action trail is scheduled to run on 7 October, coinciding with World Cotton Day. The events are produced by the Guardian’s Legacies of Enslavement programme alongside the charity Greater Manchester Moving, an organization focused on improving regional wellbeing through physical activity.
Tracing Manchester’s Antislavery Roots and Cotton Economy
The movement to uncover these suppressed histories builds upon trial walks funded earlier this year by the Guardian’s Legacies of Enslavement programme. Among those earlier explorations was the Decolonial Dogs heritage trail, co-led by Bilal Zafar Ranjha and Elmi Ali in partnership with Greater Manchester Moving. That trail commenced at Manchester Cathedral, directing attention to a key 1787 antislavery meeting led by abolitionist Thomas Clarkson. That gathering galvanized one in five Mancunian adults—amounting to 10,500 people—to sign a petition against the trafficking of enslaved Africans.
Reflecting on that historical mobilization, Ali noted how moments from the past demonstrate that communities often outpace their governing bodies. “Do people know one in five of the population in that period signed up to support what would be the equivalent to Black Lives Matter now?” Ali said during the tour.
Stops along the route have confronted visitors with stark reminders of historical amnesia. At Chetham’s Library, Ali pointed out the dichotomy between the city’s recorded trade and its unrecorded human cost. “This building knows who traded cotton in Manchester,” Ali said. “What it does not contain, what Manchester never recorded, are the names of the people who picked that cotton.”
Drawing on research provided by Dr Cassandra Gooptar of the University of Hull’s Wilberforce Institute, the tours surface the identities of enslaved individuals whose forced labor fueled the local economy. These include Archy Gordon, a 50-year-old blind man, and Sam Kerr, 19, both of whom lived on the Success plantation in Hanover, Jamaica—an estate owned by George Philips, one of the founding investors of the Manchester Guardian.
Activism, Memorialization, and Public Space
Manchester boasts a rich legacy of Black activism, stretching from the crowd of Black Georgians who gathered at the city’s collegiate church in 1787 to campaign for abolition, to the Pan-Africanist politicians, writers, and economists who convened in the city to lead postwar independence struggles. Cultural figures like Nina Simone and Miriam Makeba also left indelible marks through Manchester concerts that inspired local residents.
Despite being home to one of the United Kingdom’s largest postwar Black communities, public memorials recognizing this history remain sparse. Current outdoor commemorations in the city center prompt questions about societal priorities regarding remembrance. At the Peace Garden, a plaque commemorating enslaved Africans and featuring a quote from abolitionist Olaudah Equiano sits dwarfed by a towering statue of Abraham Lincoln.
Similarly, St Ann’s Square marks the spot where African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass was believed to be staying when he learned his freedom had been secured. Today, no plaque marks the location, though the branch of Holland & Barrett currently occupying the address served as a stop on the Decolonial Dogs trail.
Efforts to shift public representation are underway. The Len Johnson Memorial Campaign is working to erect a bronze statue of the British boxer, civil rights activist, and trade unionist in Manchester. While town hall already features sculptures of Black peace campaigner Erinma Bell and Yomi Mambu, the city’s first Black lord mayor, a monument to Johnson would become the first outdoor statue of a Black person in Manchester.
Moving Forward Through Transparency
Tour leaders and academics emphasize that unearthing these narratives is essential for contemporary civic life. Ranjha characterized the long-standing omission of these facts as “historical amnesia and whitewashing history.”
Prof Anandi Ramamurthy, an academic specializing in post-colonial histories, culture, and mental health who participated in the Decolonial Dogs trail, stressed the necessity of addressing these gaps directly. “To me, if you want people to talk about community cohesion, that cannot be done without transparency and without accountability—all the institutions of Manchester need to come forward and look at their past, so we’re able to come together and to envision a different future,” Ramamurthy said.
As the Heritage in Action trail prepares to launch on World Cotton Day, organizers and local historians will continue guiding participants along the canals and city streets that defined Manchester’s industrial rise, ensuring that the names and lives of the Black individuals who shaped the city are no longer left out of the history.
We welcome your thoughts on these heritage trails and local efforts to preserve Manchester’s history. Please share your comments below.
