Madge Dresser. Slavery Obscured: The Social History of the Slave Trade in an English Provincial Port. (The Black Atlantic.) New York: Continuum. 2001. Pp. xiv, 242. n. p. paper. ISBN 0-8264-4876-3.

Risk and risk management in the Liverpool slave trade

“…Liverpool merchants seemed able to provide their services more efficiently than in Bristol and were better at taking advantage of new opportunities on the African coast (Richardson, 2005, p. 46). There also appear to be some socio-cultural factors involved, including a growing uneasiness in Bristol about involvement in the slave trade which did not seem to bother the Liverpudlians (Dresser, 2001, chapters 3 and 4). It has also been suggested that the Liverpool mercantile community was more permeable.…”

The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research

“…What took place in the midst of these locations was a national debate about not only Britain's involvement in transatlantic slavery, but also, crucially, whose voices were ultimately heard, and whose history this was (Kaplan and Oldfield, 2010;Walvin, 2010;Cubitt et al, 2011). The marking of this commemorative date gave 'permission, as if it were needed' (Mack, 2009 p. 248) to look at a history which had been previously obscured (Dresser, 2007). This was a history which, when it had been told, was articulated through the celebratory prism of abolitionism, at the expense of a more critical look at the history of transatlantic slavery and its aftermath (Oldfield, 2007b).…”

Bristol: ‘civilising’ the inner city

“…5 Even today it is a city whose civic authorities are anxious to play down the importance of the trade in turning the labours of slaves into the mansions of Clifton. There is still no exhibition to commemorate abolition or chronicle slavery in the city, although one is planned for 2007.…”