Multidirectional Memory, Many-Headed Hydras and Glasgow

Abstract

This chapter forms a case study of memory/amnesia around slavery in Glasgow and proposes that a number of high profile events in the year 2014 may prove to be a turning point in this regard. The first section peels back the overlapping layers of Atlantic, British, Scottish and Glaswegian amnesia which have prolonged the silence around slavery. The second section identifies that all twelve statues in the city’s central George Square have a connection to slavery or abolition. Borrowing from Michael Rothberg’s ‘Multi-directional Memory’ approach, it reads the statues ‘against the grain’ to demonstrate how slavery can be integrated into Glasgow’s public memory of commerce, science, militarism, politics and literature. This recovery of the memory of slavery in Glasgow comes at a dynamic period in Scotland’s history and has the potential to transform its sense of cultural history the better to forge its political future.