Liverpool recalled as top slave port in 18c Europe as UK set to celebrate bi-centenary of 1807 abolition of slavery [audio 1st 14min]

"Making History" presenter Nick Baker and the actor and writer Kwame Kwei Armah conclude their journey to take in the three UK locales associated with slavery by visiting Liverpool. By the end of the 17th century, the English were the largest traffickers in slaves in the Western world, shipping on average 6,000-8,000 enslaved Africans a year to the Americas. By the mid-18th Century, 95% of all slave voyages took place from one Britain's three major ports, Liverpool, London and Bristol. Liverpool was late in entering the slave trade, but she quickly surpassed London and Bristol to become the No. 1 slave port in the whole of Europe by the 1740s. "Making History" consulted Tony Tibbles, Head of the Merseyside Maritime Museum and of the new International Slavery Museum; and Professor Denis Judd, London Metropolitan University. Kwame Kwei Armah, who was born Ian Roberts in London, changed his name after researching his genealogy from the slave trade to his family's African roots.