to ask if there are black people in hull?

[izzy5678]

Im black and considering moving my family to hull due to housing shortages in my area.
Just wanted to know if it is common to see black people in hull as I do not want my family to be ostracised.

I was bullied extensively in high school due to the colour of my skin everyday for 5 years. Absolutley ruined me as a person.

I left school 6 years ago and to this day am still suffering the affects of the daily abuse I received all those years ago and would not want that for my children, hence my reason asking this question.

Thanks in advance and please don't take offence anyone x

What do you mean, Sunny? Hull has a centuries old seafaring history but it wasn't built on the slave trade, if that's what you mean. Being stuck out on the East coast limited direct involvement there.

There is an anti-slavery museum in Hull, though, because it's the birthplace of William Wilberforce. And there's a big anti-racism Freedom Festival every year.

Apologies if I've misunderstood your post.

yes that was what I meant.
While the majority of slave ports were on the west coast, eg Bristol, Liverpool, nonetheless Hull was also a slave port.
Of course there is also the WW connection - why do you think he was so bothered? Because of what he saw at his local port.

Sunny I thought British ships transported slaves from West Africa to the West Indies and then brought the goods from the West Indies (notably sugar) back here, so although the wealth was definitely created as a result of the slave trade it does not mean huge numbers of black slaves settled here.

well there were bound to have been some just like Liverpool and Bristol

There weren't huge numbers, no. But, because of the learned nature of the abolitionist cause, and the erudition of its black members, several of the ones who were here made a name for themselves. It's a pity that the celebrity of the abolitionists has vanished so thoroughly.

I'm sorry but you're misinformed, Sunny. Hull was never a slave port. Its trade was always with the Baltic & northern Europe; & of course whaling & then general fishing were key to the growth of its prosperity in its heyday.

WW wasn't involved because of what he saw at his local port. He had abolitionist friends in parliament & was also influenced by his Christian faith, as far as I understand.

If a city had been involved in slavery, that wouldn't automatically tell us much about how many black people are living there now, anyway!

loon I am not 'misinformed' thanks!
Hull was a slave port, like it or not.
Have a look at the port's history yourself if you like.
and mostly if a place has been a slave port in the past, then yes there are more black people there years late, obviously.

If a city had been involved in slavery, that wouldn't automatically tell us much about how many black people are living there now, anyway! good point.

Sunny please can you provide a link to this because all I have found suggests that the trade was with Europe and the Baltic as Loon said.

uk.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A9mSs3ZjmIFUjlwA.vBLBQx.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsYWhiN2NvBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2lyMgR2dGlkAw--?_adv_prop=image&fr=mcafee&va=hull+slave+trade

yeoldeblackboy.weebly.com/

With all due respect, the op is getting placed there. Probably onto a council estate, most likely Preston Road, there will be no opportunities to go to these "outstanding" schools cos she won't be placed in a desirable part of town. What's the point in discussing leafy suburbs in another county? This is not where they will be forced to live!

Op ,please do not move so far away from your support systems.It is not about 'black people'You will be so alone anyway due to culture shock.

Is it possible to just bite the bullet for some years and stay where you are?

I would rather be in a friendly room in 'my place' than a mansion in the wilderness!

Thanks, Sunny, but have you got an article about it? Have looked at the WISE institute and Wilberforce Museum and it doesn't talk about slaves in Hull.

Hull was not directly involved in the slave trade. Your first link is to various images in the Hull museum of slavery, Sunny, which is in William Wilberforce's House, & which is about the history of slavery in general.

"Ye Olde Black Boy" is a rather unfortunately named old Hull pub, based on a legend / ghost story about someone having seen a slave boy / the ghost of a slave boy in the building - not exactly a sound basis for claims about Hull's involvement in slavery.

Hull never got any kind of foothold in trade in any of the American colonies, Africa, the Indies or anywhere in the East. Apparently there were very rare American cargoes of tobacco & whale oil that came into the city, but Hull's established trading links were with the Baltic & European states. Even in its heyday Hull wasn't a port on the scale of Liverpool or Bristol.

This is all well-known fact, Sunny. There's a whole Institute dedicated to research into slavery at the University of Hull that provides excellent materials on the subject to schools. There is a Black History organization in Hull too, & I know people who've been involved in Black History week. You can easily find information about the history of Hull.

And yes, I agree with gotthemoon, that the issue for the OP is much more to do with having to leave family & support networks, being cast adrift somewhere you don't know anyone, than it is to do with the nature of Hull or its population.

It is a friendly city, but that's not the same as having family support around you.

Loon DD has been on courses at WISE Institute and says the same as you. Was just wondering of there was something I had missed.

EachandEveryone someone mentioned Archbishop Santamu as being good. Isn't that near Preston Road? Also aren't they doing a regeneration project in the Preston Road area?
I agree that moving to a new area is tough unless you already know people there or have a Church affiliation or have been involved in something like Cubs/ Scouts that helps you to get to know people.

Hi izzy. I grew up in Coulsdon, Purley and Croydon, and then went to university in Hull, bought a house there and stayed for 14 years. I'm white.

I love Hull. My experience is not very many black people. There used to be (I only visit now) a strong Chinese community and there are plenty of Asian people. It is however, VERY different to Croydon.

I've only got misgivings for you on two points-the distance from your family that others mention. Hull is a bloody long way up and isn't the type of city that people pass through on their way to somewhere else, IYSWIM. You have to GO there, or be intending to go there, so this can give it the effect of being isolated/isolating.

And secondly, your lack of choice about where you're put. There are plenty of totally shitty places in Hull. Do you have any hint at all of where you might be placed (sorry if you've said already).

As for the rest, I only left Hull because of a pre existing desire and urge to move to Cornwall(family connections etc). I still wish, some 14 years later, that I could've bundled up all the people of Hull and brought them with me as they are pretty bloody fabulous across the board. I miss it all the time. I miss them.

Tbf OP, I don't think white peoples opinion of whether an area is racist, is of an use.

I agree completely. And sorry Hatespiders, but your reaction to the Norfolk is racist posters shows a lot of naivety. Ever since I moved to the UK I have lived in small market towns or provincial cities with a very small black population. People are often cordial to a black person as an individual they know, while yet holding some pretty awful views about black people as a group.

And very often those views start to become problematic as soon as you find yourself in trouble, or needing support at school or work in aspirations of one sort or another. Even if you are not being abused, prejudiced attitudes can still hold you back. Plus, not everyone wants to be treated, or see their children treated, as an amusing novelty.

OP, my mother is from Hull. I don't go there much now, but I can say that both in the city and the surrounding areas you will be a real rarity as a black person. There is a University there which helps, but don't go there unless you are prepared to be one of a kind almost all of the time.

I agree you will be a novelty, one of a kind nearly everywhere you go. People in a Hull on the whole are great but there are a lot of small minded people there. When I get a cab from the station the conversation is always the same. Even twenty years later. As soon as you say you have come up from London it finishes. It's the end of the line is a hull. It has pockets of creativeness, there's genuine artistic talent there. That's most of my friends though and they are in the minority. I'm just really worried you will get put on an estate in the back end of nowhere. I don't care for rejuvenation it makes no difference. They did that on the estate near me in London. Where do you think they put the people that still live there? They don't put them all on an island somewhere where they can't make peoples life's a misery. They still continue to do so just in nicer flats.

not everyone wants to be treated, or see their children treated, as an amusing ratbag

Yy ratbag this is very much not ok with me; I was having trouble articulating this

Haha! Spot the deliberate mistake!!

I think Hatespiders was being sarcastic to start with.

The "African costume" development is fascinating. How much further are you going to push it? What kind of African costume?

Re. the Hull & slavery question: I've just exchanged a couple of emails with someone who knows more than me on this topic; & Hull was definitely never a slave port.

The only indirect links with slavery are that some of the Hull businessmen who had warehouses in what's now the Old Town made a small part of their money trading in products produced by slaves - ie. tobacco & cotton - that were brought over in the rare cargoes from America.

Current thinking about 'Ye Olde Black Boy' pub indicates that the name may have come about because it used to be a coffee shop & the owner apparently employed a Moroccan boy to stand outside the shop & welcome customers.

izzy, I'm sorry to derail your thread. I just wanted to correct the misinformation posted by sunny & to be sure of the facts.

QueenTilly, I was most certainly not being sarcastic at all.
Regarding my dh's African costumes, I can't comprehend why you find this so 'fascinating'. They consist of baggy trousers and a longish shirt-like top, in thick brightly-coloured cotton of traditional Ivorian designs. Sometimes he wears his 'bazin' ones of very shiny cotton. He usually wears these things at weekends in the summer. We have loads of lovely photos of him dancing with various Border Morris sides, and the two cultures dancing together is a heartwarming sight. He isn't an 'amusing novelty' at all. He has many close friends here, and works for his living as a school cleaner, where his colleagues treat him like anyone else, as do his football team-mates and our local church.
I'm astonished that people on this thread appear to resent the fact that I have the cheek to say my dh has never met with racism in Norfolk. What do you want me to do? Lie? I'm truly sorry for those who haven't had such a good response from Norfolk people, but I can only speak as we find.