Glasgow’s Atlantic World: Tobacco, Sugar and Slavery **Sold Out**

Wednesday 22nd May 2019 | 6pm | 54 Bell Street

Glasgow’s transatlantic links are clear from the famous city centre street names such as Jamaica and Virginia Street. Whilst Glasgow often prides itself on its early abolitionary stance on slavery, this overlooks the fact that the eighteenth century sugar and tobacco merchants earned their wealth through a system which depended upon slavery overseas. For instance in Jamaica, 30 per cent of plantations were Scots owned, and life expectancy on them was a mere four years! Glasgow’s historic transatlantic trade routes and history are present not only in the streets of Glasgow but also in the people, places and heritage of the Caribbean islands and the Americas up to today.

Dr Stephen Mullen will explore the history of Glasgow’s links to the Americas and the Caribbean, before Councillor Graham Campbell tells us more in detail about Glasgow’s links to Jamaica, and why Jamaica is the Caribbean’s most Scottish island.