SEVERAL exhibits in a city museum were paid for by slavery, a new play reveals.

This Accursed Thing is being performed today at Manchester Museum.

Visitors are approached by two actors playing several characters who highlight the links with the slave trade.

Manchester University drama lecturer Tony Jackson, who's in charge of the project, said: "Parts of the museum's collection were paid for by wealthy individuals who benefited from the slave trade.

"It's a chance for Manchester to acknowledge its slave trade links but also to remember the proud contribution the city made to its abolition."

The play's characters include anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson, African and British slave traders, escaped slave James Watkins and a Lancashire cotton worker.

Mr Jackson said: "James Watkins was an escaped slave who went on a lecture tour in Britain to gather support for President Abraham Lincoln's fight against slavery.

"It apparently worked. Lancashire cotton workers voted to boycott cotton from the southern states - an amazingly compassionate act which threatened their own livelihoods. Lincoln himself sent the Lancashire workers a formal expression of gratitude."

Pete Brown, from Manchester Museum, said the drama sent out a powerful message.

He said: "Visitors' eyes light up when they realise the issues and debates being played out in front of them."

Performances of the play are at 1.30 and 3pm.