Cottonopolis Collection Encounter: Manchester Cottons and Transatlantic Slavery
| Dates: | 6 May 2026 |
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| Times: | 14:00 - 15:30 |
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| What is it: | Drop-in session |
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| Organiser: | John Rylands Library |
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| Who is it for: | General public |
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Join us for a Collection Encounter exploring the relationship between slavery and the cotton trade that helped make Manchester a global centre of textile production. Using library archives and collections we'll examine how enslaved labour in the Americas supplied the raw cotton that fuelled Manchester’s mills. We'll be joined by Researcher Dr Kimberley Thomas and Professor Edmond Smith, curator of the Cottonopolis: The Origins of Global Manchester exhibition who will trace the wider networks that sustained this trade, from Liverpool merchants supplying raw cotton to Manchester’s mills to the infrastructure of the north-west that enabled goods to move efficiently between the port and inland mill.
No need to book this event is free and drop in, taking place in the Reading Room on level 2.
Travel and Contact Information
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John Rylands Research Institute and Library
150 Deansgate
Manchester
Gtr Manchester
