Carys Nally of BBC News in Bristol reports that a new plaque has been affixed to the plinth where a statue of a slave trader once stood. The statue of Edward Colston in Bristol was torn down during a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020 and thrown into the city’s harbour. The new plaque, installed on 17 April, removes any mention of Colston as a “city benefactor”, as outlined in the wording of the plaque.
Conservative city councillor Richard Eddy expressed his disapproval of the revision, calling it “utterly shameful”. Eddy insisted that deleting the reference to Edward Colston as a benefactor was outrageous and likened it to historical revision akin to the Nazis. In response, opposition councillors pointed out that Colston’s wealth was derived from the forced transportation of 84,000 slaves, with nearly 20,000 of them perishing, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Edward Colston, a prominent 17th-century slave trader, has long been a controversial figure in Bristol. As a member of the Royal African Company, Colston was involved in transporting around 80,000 individuals from Africa to the Americas. Despite his controversial legacy, upon his death in 1721, Colston bequeathed his wealth to charities, leaving behind a lasting impact on Bristol’s streets, memorials, and buildings. The aftermath of the statue being pulled down saw a protester mimicking George Floyd’s death with their knee on the statue’s neck, evoking a poignant reminder of police brutality.
In January 2022, four individuals accused of unlawfully removing the statue were cleared of criminal damage charges. The statue now resides in M Shed’s Bristol People gallery as a permanent exhibit. Seven years after its proposal, the new plaque has been positioned below the original plaque on the plinth, paying homage to the statue erected 130 years ago. The inscription on the new plaque recounts the events surrounding the statue’s removal and its eventual inclusion in Bristol City Council’s museum collections after consultation with the city in 2021
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