Description:

Historic site, the statue of Edward Colston, (about 1895), in The Centre, Bristol. This statue of Colston idealises him as a respected and charitable Bristol merchant and is silent about his role as a member of the Court of Assistants to the Royal African Company, a trading company which had official control over the slave trade until 1698. Colston was also a prominant sugar merchant with interests in the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. He contributed to many of the city’s educational institutions, hospitals and housing, as well as restoring a number of churches. Colston’s Day is commemorated every November by the Bristol schools and charities founded in his name. His relationship with the city is still a topic of debate amongst the citizens of Bristol. Some feel that his statue and the hall named after him should be removed, or renamed respectively, in memory of enslaved Africans and in respect for their descendants.

With thanks to the authors of the Slave Trade Trail around Central Bristol, Madge Dresser, Caletta Jordan, Doreen Taylor.

Date: about 1895

Copyright: Copyright BCC Museum