The Secret Shame of Penny Lane
The dark chapter of history behind the name of a famous street
Mar 21, 2007
“Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes.”
The iconic Beatles song released in 1964 made the quiet suburban street in south Liverpool one of the most famous thoroughfares in the world. The name has a gentle, old world very English sound to it.
But the man after whom it was named was responsible for the misery, degradation and deaths of thousands.
James Penny was a Liverpool merchant whose stock in trade was slaves. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the growing sea port of Liverpool became fabulously wealthy and most of that wealth was earned by city businessmen and sea captains who took cheap trade goods to the west coast of Africa and exchanged them for men, women and children whom they then shipped off to the West Indies. Even if a ship lost a third of its slaves on that infamous Middle Passage it was still immensely profitable. And of course the captains could then fill their slave quarters with sugar, molasses and rum and sell them back in England which was equally profitable.
At one time, half the slaves carried from Africa to the West Indies and America were taken in Liverpool ships.
James Penny was one of the leading protagonists in the battle against the abolition of slavery. He told one Parliamentary inquiry that he had financed about 11 slave trading expeditions, each one buying and selling about 600 human beings. He claimed that out of humanity and personal interest, he took the best care possible of his slaves and his crews.
Of his ships, he once said: “The slaves there will sleep better than the gentlemen do on shore. The slave ships at Liverpool are built on purpose for this trade, and are accommodated with air ports and gratings for the purpose of keeping the slaves cool.”
So active was he on behalf of the Liverpool slave traders that they clubbed together to buy him a magnificent silver table ornament as a thank-you gesture.
James Penny was one of many Liverpool people who depended on the slave trade, from rich merchants like himself down to the common sailors, many of whom had no choice but to join the trade if they wanted to eat.
One of those who profited from the trade in human flesh was John Newton, former captain of a Liverpool slave ship, who wrote the beloved hymn Amazing Grace after his conversion to evangelical Christianity. But the remorse he expressed in that hymn had nothing to do with his slaving activities. He felt more ashamed about all the blaspheming he’d done down the years and he continued to participate in the slave trade long after he had seen the light. It was much later before he truly saw the error of his ways.
This year, Britain celebrates the 200th anniversary of her abolition of the slave trade. The last British slave ship, Kitty's Amelia, left Liverpool for Africa in July, 1807.
The anniversary has seen a resurgence in the sense of shame that still lingers in Liverpool.
In fact, in 2006 a well-meaning city councillor proposed that all the streets named after slave traders should be re-named. However, she then admitted that she had not known that the world-famous Penny Lane was one of them and the plan was quietly forgotten.
