Monday, June 8, 2020

Monday 8th June

The toppling of Edward Colston's statue into Bristol's quayside has become a point in history.  Slave trader and benefactor in Bristol city, his downfall was at last achieved as he is toppled into the water.  Black people in Bristol will rejoice as this symbol of oppression is at last getting the justice he deserves - true he is only a statue but the authorities are wary of making a big song and dance about it.  Now will all the other memorials to Colston caught in naming civic buildings follow suit I wonder.  The young always bring about the revolution ;)



During Colston's involvement with the Royal African company (1680 to 1692), it is estimated that the company transported around 84,000 African men, women and children, who had been traded as slaves in West Africa, of whom 19,000 died on their journey to the Caribbean and the rest of the Americas. Due to the conditions on many of the vessels, the extended journeys affected the ship's crew mortality rates which were often similar and sometimes greater than the mortality rates amongst the slaves.The slaves were sold to planters for cheap labour on their tobacco, and, increasingly, sugar plantations who considered Africans would be more suited to the conditions than their own countrymen, as the climate resembled the climate of their homeland in West Africa. Enslaved Africans were also much less expensive to maintain than indentured servants or paid wage labourers from Britain.  Wiki entrance

Another house Tyntesfield also comes to mind as part of the inheritance of our country built on the labour of slaves.................


Edward Colston was part of of the 17th century slave traders but the above house, seven miles from Bristol  was built at a later date, the gorgeous Tyntesfield House, Victorian Gothic a later design.  It has had a romantic history for it fell into disrepair and was only rescued by the National Trust a few years ago but again the money used to build it was from the collection of guano (bird shit) by African and Chinese slaves.





"Tyntesfield was built on the tortured lives of African and Chinese slaves. But you would never know it from your visit. It’s time the National Trust started presenting the real stories of its premises, not a sanitised, dumbed-down, bland experience".  Interesting review on Trip Advisor. As an aside, the National Trust made a perfectly reasonable answer, the notice on slave history was in another room.



10 comments:

  1. It saddens me that there is still discrimination against black people (and please don't let anyone call them 'coloured' - they are rightly proud to be black.) I taught in Wolverhampton for almost twenty years and I always had more black pupils than white in my classes. I found no discrimination in school at the time and because there were so many black people working there and in the street then if there was discrimination I never noticed it. Up here one never sees a black face - and that doesn't help.

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    1. I think Weave is right. In the 1960s almost everyone I encountered was white, and others stood out. Later, working where there were large numbers of other race, I no longer noticed beyond the level of the kind of hair or coat they had, or whether they wore glasses. What I didn't notice, because of my unspoken privilege, was any discrimination that they did suffer.

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    2. Yes Pat I think discrimination by most british people is not an issue. Bristol has a small black population as does Bath. But The Colston name has been an issue for a long time, the statue should have been dealt with years ago and not forgetting Bristol was an important port for the traffic of slaves. Up North so to speak you have larger Asian groups of people, and again integration is hopefully. I know when my daughter's town is flooded or has a problem it is the Asian folk who come with food to help.

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    3. Hi TD, true from the 1960s we were only just beginning to understand immigration, and there was plenty of nasty behaviour by white landlords and employees. Yet black people and Asians have succeeded in our society to break the proverbial glass ceiling, so though the system may be faulty we see a movement that is going forward. And probably most important of all the discussion is taking place at a deeper level.

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  2. As I have become and elder I realize that almost every single bridge, building or hugh monument was probably built by slave labor or low wage workers. No one pays for this stuff. Therefore, when I visit I think thoughts of hope for a better society.

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    1. The great contradiction though Tabor, is that such beautiful buildings were built on the hard labour of the poor, I wonder what the poor Egyptian workers who constructed the pyramids thought. Cathedrals dedicated to the greater glory of god, chiselled stone by stone, was it worth the effort to them?

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  3. Thelma, knock, knock. I have arrived (on your blog).

    What fascinates me about people like Colston is the apparent contradiction in terms. Slave trader, yet philanthropist. Good people doing bad things. And, I suppose, vice versa.

    I am the last person to defend anyone who doesn't observe basic humanity. However, I wonder how many people were just products of their time, would be aghast at their actions if they saw them through our eyes. What seems outrageous to us NOW might have been perfectly normal THEN. Not, of course, that the old ". . . and they don't/didn't know what they were doing" is a get out clause in our "enlightened" times. Or, in the words of both the law and my mother, loosely translated: "Being ignorant doesn't mean you'll go unpunished".

    U

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  4. Welcome Ursula, well apart from the fact that Colston was a Victorian, born into a time when the world, in their eyes anyway, was laid at their feet for the enhancement of wealth, being a philanthropist was the thing that got not only the approval of your fellow beings but it got you into heaven as well. I think at the moment we might be going through a thought process that opens our eyes to the humanity of our race, after all was it not somewhere in Africa that Homo Sapiens first came to light....

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  5. We could be out of statues some day. Even George Washington owned slaves, and so did James Madison.

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  6. Bristol is also noted for being the home of Banksy the graffiti artist and hot air balloons that float over the city at the annual balloon festival, it is a bright and energetic city. The fate of statues is that their history becomes out of date with time, perhaps we should have a time limit on them and use their plinths for more modern work.

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