OT - Black Boy Pub

Just been looking at the Not606 Liverpool board and there is a thread about The UK city of Culture.

Somebody mentioned that Hull was once a slave port and cited the "Black Boy" pub as evidence.

I've no recollection of Hull ever being a slave port and I thought the "Black Boy" was recognising the abolition
of slavery with it being so close to Wilberforce House.

Am i right?. Can anybody shed anymore light on this.

 

The name of the pub, surprisingly, is unconnected with slavery, though. It dates from the time when the premises was used by a tobacco merchant, the ‘black boy’ being the pipe smoking American Indian which was adopted as a symbol by that trade. The building subsequently became a wine merchants and it’s that décor that remained when it ultimately became a pub.

http://davelee1968.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/572/

 

Hull was never a "slave port" but at one time Liverpool was the biggest slave trading port in Europe.

 

Slaving principally confined to west coast...Bristol and Liverpool mainly, with Cardiff less so.

Ship leaves England with stuff, trades in Africa, loads up with slaves, sails to the New World, discharges slaves, loads up with baccy and sugar, sails back to Bristol and Liverpool and rich merchants.

Toxteth and St Pauls are some of oldest black communities in Britain.

 

Thanks for your replies.

I'm sure Hull was the first transit port for Europeans traveling to "The New World". So if anything it would have been a welcoming
port for those travellers.

 

Don't think we made much money out of them unfortunately.......

 

Did the slaves arrive wearing shell suits?

 

I'm sure that when the port of Hull was busy, it was one of the wealthiest Cities in the UK. I'm sure it was on a documentary about Hull.

 

Still had loads of slums though.

For every Coltman Street a Woodcock street not far away......

 

Eastern European emigrants sailed from northern European ports to Hull in the latter part of the 19th century, before continuing by train to Liverpool and Glasgow, in order to sail to America. We stayed in the Lloyd hotel in Amsterdam recently, which had served as a hostel for emigrants prior to leaving mainland Europe. It later served as a borstal, before becoming a derelict squat for Dutch artists. It was actually one of the best hotels I've ever stayed in.

 

Wasn't it Hull where the freed slaves went back to Sierra Leone? I'm only going from the connection between here and Freetown.

 

When I used to frequent the Black Boy in my youth, the dart board was on the toilet door, so you took your life in your hands if you went for a piss.

 

No, but the Paddies did!

 

The emigrant ships docked in Prince's dock and the emigrants stayed in the big white building down Posterngate before being walked to Paragon Station. They then boarded trains to Liverpool to board ships to the New World. The rail tracks are still there at Paragon Station. Hundreds of thousands made this journey via 'Ull and is well documented as far as I know.

 

Emigrants had to be contained to restrict the possible spread of disease. The holding area at Paragon was the building now used as Tigers Lair.

As an aside, some historians claim that most strains of syphilis originate from Hull.

 

Our connection with Sierra Leone is Oil Seed. We imported Rape, Linseed, Soya, Cocoa and Palm Kernel etc and crushed it to make Vegetable Oil at the mills down Wincolmlee, speaking as a former Chambers and Fargus employee and Whalebone customer!!

 

It is well documented, there's a statue down at the bottom of the Marina.

 

Aye, a quarantine hostel was built by the side of the station. It was cholera that was the main concern. The trains left from the tracks on the station edge, they didn't even bother putting a roof over the tracks, so the departure point always seemed separate from the rest of the station.

 

Well we are the City of Culture

 

That's the documentary, Syphilis was spread, as back in the day it was a 'wealthy' disease spread by wealthy sea faring folk.