Half Baked Histories

As usual the left-wing halfwits in the anti-racism and BLM movements have cherry picked history  ....

Manchester's Crest Since 1842

.... and attacked a target that is nothing really to do with 'slavery' (aka black slavery by white people - they don't care about slavery by West African blacks or Arabs or any other forms of slavery that have gone on since the world began) ... except as side product of history elsewhere.

It matters not that Britain's Empire practised slavery for the least amount of time of any empire in history, or that we were the first to abolish slavery freely (for example, Mauritania in Black Africa became the last country in the world in 1981 to officially abolish slavery, and as recently as 2018 Mauritania was being condemned for its continued acceptance of heredity slavery) .... no, all that matters is that despite abolishing slavery in 1807 (and in the colonies in 1838), and even patrolling the African coast to blockade slavers from other countries, white Britons today should still be castigated.   

This time it is the Manchester football club crests, that display ships which are under attack (and presumably the city of Manchester as well which shares the same 'ship in full sail' on its crest). Journalist Simon Hattenstone, writing in the left wing Guardian Newspaper (ironically formerly the Manchester Guardian), has made claims that the ships are symbols of slavery links, via Manchester's cotton past.

The Offending Manchester Football Club Badges

Both club badges are now considered to refer to the building of the Manchester ship canal, which freed Manchester trade from being controlled via Liverpool Docks. Construction of the ship canal began in 1887 and it began being used commercially on the 1st of January in 1894 ... a source of great pride in the city when completed.

Manchester United (Newton Heath) were founded in 1878, while Manchester City were founded in 1894. The Manchester United club crest is derived from the Manchester City Council coat of arms, although all that remains of it on the current crest is the ship in full sail .... While City's was also based on the same crest, and also retained the ship in full sail. In heraldic terms, the Chief (the white Argent) top segment) of the Manchester crest shows a ship at sea in full sail. This is a reference to the city's trading base ....  it was granted to the Manchester Corporation in 1842.

Manchester Support For Abraham Lincoln

During the American Civil War, in 1862, Manchester/Lancashire mill workers, made great personal sacrifice, and took a principled stand by refusing to touch raw cotton picked by US slaves. A fact that ironically again, the Guardian Newspaper commemorated in an article in February 2013 entitled 'Lincoln's great debt to Manchester'. 

Abraham Lincoln himself acknowledged the self-sacrifice of the 'working men of Manchester' in a letter he sent them in 1863. Lincoln's words inscribed on the pedestal of his statue that can still be found in Lincoln Square, Manchester - praised the workers for their selfless act of "sublime Christian heroism, which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country." This statements were followed by the arrival of US relief ships packed with provisions sent by grateful Americans as an act of brotherhood between the Union states and Lancashire.

But this proud history is worth nothing to the woke campaigners .... even Labour politicians are disgusted by the attack .... Labour MP for Blackley and Broughton (and Ex Manchester Labour leader), Graham Stringer said (in a view echoed by Conservative MP for Wythenshawe Katherine Fletcher), that:

 'Manchester had nothing to do with the slave trade. People from the city at the time of the US Civil War in 1861 ­protested against slavery. This is one of the craziest campaigns I have ever seen.'

But what does a woke campaign warrior like Mr Hattenstone, or even the Guardian Newspaper care ... they got some cheap publicity ...... we reap what we sow.