THE list of names is long, although details about the people on it are scarce. There’s Adam, a carpenter; Lilly and Chloe, washers; Troy, aged 10, a field boy.

Cleopatra was a seamstress, Argyle a mason. Some, like Juba and Cassandra, are simply marked as ‘invalids’. All of them, even toddlers like Belinda and Nelly, have been assigned a number.

These men, women and children feature alongside dozens more on a list of slaves kept by the Hampden Plantation in Jamaica in 1771, run by the family of Glasgow merchant James Stirling of Keir and Cadder.

The list, along with accounts and other financial records, correspondence, letter books and details of ship arrivals and their cargo, is held by Glasgow City Archives at the Mitchell Library.

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Senior archivist Dr Irene O’Brien explains: “The collection is one of the most comprehensive in Scotland for the study of Caribbean slavery, helping to tell the story of the management of plantations and provide insight into the world of enslaved people.

“The lists of slaves are very poignant and very sad – often included in the stock books, listed like cattle or commodities, they include very few details other than first names, which were usually given to them by the owners, and their ‘value’.”

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Glasgow’s links to slavery began in the 17th century, when the city achieved commercial success through its trade in tobacco and sugar.

Merchants acquired land on the east coast of America and in the West Indies, clearing it for plantations. By the late 1700s, around a third of Jamaican plantations – which depended upon enslaved workers - were owned by Scots.

James Stirling of Keir and Cadder and his wife Marion Stuart had twenty-two children, several of whom became merchants in Jamaica,. The collection also includes a manumission (freedom from slavery) granted by William Stirling of Keir to a Mulatto boy named Charles. In return for this manumission, William Stirling received the sum of 10 shillings.

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Dr O’Brien explains: “The family of Keir and Cadder owned two sugar estates in Jamaica – Hampden in St James and Frontier in St Mary – from the 1720s until the 1850s. Like many other merchants they worked out of Glasgow and much of their goods and profits from West Indian slavery were unloaded at the docks in the city.”

Dr O’Brien and her team have launched Ask the Archivist, a campaign which gives people the chance to ask them questions about their collections. More details are available on their Facebook page.

Read more: Seven stunning photos - including a chilling wartime shot - which capture Glasgow's past

When the United Kingdom abolished slavery in 1833, the government of the day paid out £20m in compensation -- not to slaves, but to their owners.

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A spokesperson for Glasgow Life said: “Glasgow Life is committed to telling the story of the impact transatlantic slavery and empire has had on Glasgow. Although the journey of coming to terms with that participation is still in its infancy, Glasgow Museums has a range of displays, activities, a blog and digital access to archive resources on our slavery past on our website, that all begin to explore the full extent of Glasgow’s relationship with the slave trade and its impact on the city. Glasgow’s museums and collections provide the perfect opportunity to question that history, however troubling, and how it shaped the city both past and present.”