The Liverpool Enslaved Memorial Schools' Prize
The Liverpool Enslaved Memorial Project is establishing an annual schools’ prize to award a cash prize of £250, £150, and £100 to the three best entries on an aspect of Liverpool’s long black history.
The students can choose to undertake a historical interpretation or an artistic interpretation. The submissions can be written, graphic, audio, or film to allow as many young people to take part as possible.
We want to make a big push to uncover more about Liverpool’s African inhabitants and to get this history better known. We are asking young people to take part in this project and research any aspect of Liverpool’s Black History – and keep a log to record their findings.
Until very recently, local historians denied the fact that enslaved Africans were brought to Liverpool. It is time to make fitting memorials to the enslaved Africans who lived and died here, some of them recorded in burial registers or runaway slave adverts, but there are no gravestones and often no names in the record, simply ‘a black’.
The first memorial was unveiled in St Nicholas Churchyard on October 3rd 2020. This was a memorial to Abell who died in 1717 and is the first record of an enslaved African in Liverpool. A further memorial is being prepared to commemorate the lives of the nameless Africans who were kidnapped and sold into slavery and died in Liverpool.
Further advice and information is available on https://lbhrg.com/
To enter, please indicate your interest by emailing: schoolsprize@liverpoolenslaved.com and send your submission by 14th July 2025. Prizes will be awarded in October 2025.
