Summary This study seeks to account for differences between the UK and US in including sites of black slavery as part of their heritage tourism and museum agenda. Both countries were heavily involved in the slave trade and both currently have immigrant communities with an appreciation of their origins. However, and unlike the American situation, it is only recently that Britain has opened the contentious issue of slavery to public gaze. In this regard, attention focuses specifically on the mounting of a pioneering Slave Exhibition at Liverpool's Maritime Museum and, by interviewing its chief curator, various insights are gained as to the potential and pitfalls of such a permanent display of an inglorious past. Further interpretation is added by references to the general literature on heritage tourism, the emerging context of “thanatourism” and the framework of a Force Field model that can usefully accommodate the competing interests of rival stakeholders.