Slavery, cotton and the early history of the Manchester Guardian newspaper: how 8 leather-bound ledgers further our understanding of ‘Cottonopolis’

Dr Janette Martin, Research & Learning Manager and curator of the Manchester Guardian Archive and Amber Russell, Conservator at the John Rylands Library, tell us about a project to conserve and digitise eight volumes of early financial ledgers.  These financial records not only reveal how the Manchester Guardian newspaper was partly funded by the profits of slavery but also enhance our understanding of Manchester’s industrial past and the role of cotton in the city’s fortune

In April 2023, The Guardian newspaper published Cotton Capital, a special issue which acknowledged the ways in which slavery shaped the Guardian newspaper, Manchester and Britain. The special edition featured new research by Dr Cassie Gooptar, an academic at the Wilberforce Institute at the University of Hull. During the early 2020s Dr Gooptar visited the John Rylands Library numerous times, painstakingly analysing the foundational documents of the Manchester Guardian newspaper, in particular, nineteenth century account books, ledgers and financial records. Her research shows that, of the eleven men who financed the founding of the Manchester Guardian newspaper, nine had links with transatlantic slavery.

Dr Gooptar requested that some of the early records should be digitised and made widely available.  As part of the Library’s own commitment to supporting research into the University of Manchester’s link to slavery, Special Collections were pleased to set up a small project to make these financial records more accessible to a wider pool of researchers. After consultation with the Library’s Collection Care and Imaging teams it was agreed that 8 of the oversized financial ledgers would be repaired, photographed and made into digital book readers and housed alongside a wider selection of digitised material from the Manchester Guardian Archive.

When the historical ledgers of The Guardian newspaper arrived at the conservation lab, they were in a fragile state and had suffered significant water damage, leaving them vulnerable to further deterioration. The curator and digitisation team sought to preserve the ledgers sufficiently for imaging and digitisation, making them available for public access. However, as with many conservation projects, the process proved to be more complex than initially anticipated. Many of the bindings were in disrepair, with loose or missing boards, degraded spines, and broken sewing. One of the collection’s ledgers had also been plagued by mould, further complicating the preservation efforts.

The conservation team’s work involved not only cleaning and stabilising the fragile pages within the ledgers but also addressing the damaged bindings. In some cases, the spines were consolidated using Methylcellulose, a light, alcohol-based adhesive, and reinforced with Japanese tissue. In others, entirely new boards were custom-cut and affixed to the book block. Each ledger was meticulously cleaned, using a smoke sponge to carefully remove dirt and soot accumulated over the years.

The ledger in the worst condition was Guardian Ledger 270. This was also the largest of the ledgers, it had a missing spine, both boards were loose, and it was heavily water-damaged, with extensive mould growth. After treating the boards and cleaning the pages, book conservator Amber Russell realized the ledger needed more extensive intervention. The greatest challenge lay in the ledger’s sewing, which was found to be entirely disintegrated on the spine. With 987 pages in total, each page was at risk of being lost if the book’s structure was not properly stabilized.

The ledger was entirely disbound. The process began by removing the deteriorated spine material and unpicking the damaged sewing from each signature (gathering of pages in a book). Only 12 of the 60 signatures retained their original stitching. With each page carefully freed, the team worked to clean the remaining soot and protect the most fragile signatures with Japanese tissue guards. Once the signatures were ready, the ledger was resewn with conservation-grade thick sewing thread, on new tapes, using an all-along format for added durability. The spine was reinforced with layers of Japanese tissue panels, linen strips, aerocotton, and handmade paper, ensuring both strength and flexibility.

The boards were then carefully reattached. This restored structure allowed for the ledger to be handled safely and efficiently, facilitating its digitisation and future use. The conservation and rebinding of The Guardian’s ledgers represents a significant technical achievement in preserving an essential part of the newspaper’s history.

The cash books and financial ledgers related to the founder of the Guardian, John Edward Taylor, were an incredibly valuable resource in helping me to trace his wealth and better understand his early involvement in the cotton industry- key factors in uncovering some of his links to transatlantic slavery. The digitisation of these resources signifies the importance attributed to legacies research and provides an invaluable resource to persons interested in further understanding commercial legacies of slavery in Manchester.

Dr Cassandra Gooptar

FIND OUT MORE

You can access the digitised financial ledgers here and find out more about the Manchester Guardian newspaper business archive here.  Please note that the Guardian archive in Manchester ends around the early 1970s.  Later records are held in London at The Guardian News & Media Archive.

The story of the Manchester Guardian is also told by the bicentenary exhibition Manchester’s Guardian: 200 years of the Guardian newspaper.

The Founders and Funders exhibition: Slavery and the building of a University  was held at the John Ryland Library between 20 September 2023 to 23 March 2024.  This student-led exhibition explored how profits from slave trading, ownership of enslaved people, and manufacturing with slave-grown cotton funded the cultural and educational development of Manchester.  A series of blogs documenting research done into five key figures can be accessed here.

Rylands Reflects a blog series exploring the history of the John Rylands Library, our collections, and our current practice as heritage professionals in the context of racism, colonisation and representation of marginalised groups.

The John Rylands Library hope that this small digitisation project will help continue the conversations around slavery and cotton and the industrial development of Manchester.