The abolition of slavery will be commemorated in Manchester as part of plans to use public art to immortalise the city’s radical past.
An artwork in the shadow of Manchester Cathedral will pay tribute to the world-changing speech made there by anti-slave trade campaigner Thomas Clarkson in 1787.
His address, denouncing slavery, saw a fifth of the local population sign a petition calling for an end to the trade and energised the national campaign.
The proposal to install a permanent reminder is part of wider work to commemorate ‘radical Manchester’ in art.
Plans are already in place to mark the Peterloo massacre of 1819 in the redesign of St Peter’s Square, and work is in the early stages to develop a memorial to the Suffragette movement, which had its roots in the city.
Stevenson Square, in the Northern Quarter, has been mooted as a possible location for the monument, which would honour Manchester’s Pankhurst sisters and their pioneering role in the votes for women movement.
Manchester Cathedral is working with the council and public art expert Geoff Wood on bids to the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council to pay for an artist in residence for the anti-slavery installation, which is likely to be the first to be created. If funding is secured, consultation would be carried out with the public before a design is chosen.
Anthony O’Connor, the cathedral’s director of fundraising, said: "It is important to us to be at the forefront of combating hate and intolerance.
"We want to commission a piece of art that would acknowledge what happened at the cathedral but also look at slavery today."
Mr Wood said the work would have a permanent element, such as sculpture or text, but there would also be space for groups and members of the public to express themselves, in a similar way to Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth.
He added: "It will be like an outdoor history project so you can go there and see the names of people who played an active part in this and understand how it has influenced all our lives, but it will also be a platform to talk about modern day slavery."
Mike Amesbury, the council’s executive member for culture, said: "It’s essential that Manchester marks its radical past. It’s something we’ve given this nation and the whole world."
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While Manchester has a long tradition of radical politics, there are also a lot of racist knuckle dragging oafs who get their views in predigested form from The Daily Express.
In the interests of balance, can we also have a 'celebration' of them. Perhaps on the site of the old monkey house at Belle Vue?
Richard Cobden?
He must be as deserving of a commemoration in Manchester as anyone else, and his ideas are perfectly relevant today.
thats funny because there is a statue of a slave trader already sitting in prominence in Albert Square, more lip service i think! We live in a country where most under 40 have no idea why we fought two world wars and over 1m white brits are effectively supporters of the other side and are confident and happy of no reprisals from doing nazi salutes and wearing poppies!
Perhaps we can dig up the rascals who murdered the freedom fighters and post them to Clarkson.
Only joking.
I'm pleased to hear about this initiative and welcome any further additions along the same lines.
Just wish Manchester had a radical present as well as a past.
Most people have no idea whet our ancestors fought for politically, both on and off the battlefield.
Quite recently, a guy at work passed comment that it was time we forgot all about this Armistice nonsense and concentrated instead on partying.
Democracy or the right of Mancunians to be for or against whichever candidate their local Labour party has put up, is a fairly recent right that was won after a struggle that lasted for generations. Manchester can be proud of it's history of fighting for democratic and human rights and it should demonstrate that pride in public places.
And to the correspondent who thinks Nazis have a right to their point of view and should be allowed to rule this country if elected; one minor objection. The whole point of Nazism is to enslave and exterminate anyone who is not a member of "the chosen elite". Nazism is not an alternative political creed, it is a criminal ideology. The Nazi party was a criminal organization responsible for the deaths of close to 50 million people. Inciting mass murder is not a democratic right it is a reason for being locked up.
And while we are on the subject: Manchester was always a Parliament stronghold. So let's have some democratic-parliamentarian names around the place. Less of this royalist brown-nosing and pretending Manchester is London. What idiot decided to call the main square Picaddilly Gardens? Piccadilly is in London for xxxx's sake? And then Piccadilly Station (surely that's an underground station in London). And why is the other station called Victoria station? Was it funded by Mrs. Victoria Saxe-Coburg (family name changed to Windsor during WWI, just to fool us). Why not call it Peterloo Station instead? And why not Chartist Gardens. Are we ashamed of our forefathers? Might they be ashamed of us? I think they might.