(Image: a slave at work, cruelly with a metal face mask and mouth-piece to prevent him eating. He has boots and spurs round his legs and a heavy weight connected with chains to his body to prevent him absconding.)
edwardrushton.org.uk celebrates the life of the Liverpool poet who, at the age of 19, was blinded helping slaves. Founder of the School for the Blind, Rushton’s world was one of press gangs, revolution and oppression.
One of the first people to look afresh at Edward Rushton’s life was the late Bill Hunter. Bill wrote Forgotten Hero in 2002, and you can listen to a recording of it on the website, in instalments.
This week two tracks are released. Track 7. The Apologists, the Opportunists and the Fighters. Claims are still made that there were no slaves in Liverpool, or that life under slavery was an improvement.
Track 8. Rushton and the Slave Revolution in Haiti. In August 1791, two years after the French Revolution, the slaves in San Domingo revolted against their French slave owners.