To feel emotional at the slave trader statue

[Millicent10]

being pulled down earlier.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52954305

This says so much and the symbolism of throwing it in the river is such a suitable ending. Reminds everyone what happened to so many slaves.

*slave one only

What job did the statue of Colston do that couldn't be better done and more clearly done by an actual memorial to the victims of slavery?

I think I’d just echo Bristol resident David Olusoga who expressed the view today that the place for this statue was in context in a museum, not on a pedestal in the city centre.

Should Marx tomb in Highgate be destroyed - his ideas killed and enslaved far more.

@Ellisandra

Crossed posts *@Cakecakes2011* - why have both statues. Keep the space one only. Rename the Colston Hall “Freedom Hall” and let future children read, “in 2020 the Colston Hall was renamed, in honour of... removing the reference to...” etc.

Haven’t they already named Colston Hall “The M Shed”? Or did I dream that?

I probably sound like some awful racist who loves Colston...I’m not and I think the slave trade was a horrible terrible thing...however like it or not slavery has been around forever and is still around today and knocking down statues won’t help the situation

I don't think you 'love colston' but I do think that you deep down probably feel a bit of racial ownership over him and identify with his achievements to an extent and I personally have some sympathy for that.

I can see why to some people they see a the statue being torn down and rightly or wrongly feel a bit of their heritage has been vandalised. It's about what it represents.

I think that's understandable BUT it represented for others something absolutely cruel and hurtful.

I haven't seen any memes about Cromwell. Learned plenty about him while doing a history degree though.

I said 'people see a meme on social media', I wasn't referring to you in particular

See what assumptions do?

No

Should Marx tomb in Highgate be destroyed - his ideas killed and enslaved far more

Quite. Who is next on the list of statues which must be toppled? Something tells me Marx is safe.....

About fucking time.

I said 'people see a meme on social media', I wasn't referring to you in particular

Seeing as you quoted me directly, it really seemed like you were referring to me.

Pulling down statues will do sweet FA and only alienate those people who are supposed to be sympathetic

Except,after today, people have heard of the slave trader Edward Coulston and his prominence, and that of slavery, in Bristol’s history

Well read journalists were confessing on tv that they hadn’t heard of Coulston until,today

It’s shooting round the world news too

Because like it or not, Colston’s blood money which he made via a legal and socially acceptable channel at the time did a huge amount of good for Bristol so why shouldn’t that be commemorated...along with a statue depicting the suffering and torment he caused so that people can remember and learn about both sides of the coin?

It is time people got to know that Bristol built itself on the Slave Trade money

Do you know about Black Boy Hill and White Ladies Road.
The council made up a story about this....but basically it was where the women of a household went up to buy their Black Houseboy....and all of Clifton which is the lovely building that are the posh part of the city was totally SlaveTrade made money

Black people were thrown in the sea....it is fine with me that the statue goes in the river.

Having grown up in Bristol we learnt about it at school. I'm not sad it's gone, but it did prove a talking point and hot bed of debate which introduced topics into our school that aren't in the circulum.

So do u think that all the posh bits of Bristol should get ripped down too?

Should Marx tomb in Highgate be destroyed - his ideas killed and enslaved far more

Political opinions aside, one is a statue, the other, a tomb. These are completely different structures. I would be thoroughly against the destruction of Colston's grave.

[quote AKissAndASmile]@mrsBtheparker
I don't understand what you're complaining about. The statue is still there. If you want to see it so badly why not just jump in?[/quote]
Hahaha good one

I want the name of Colston to be remembered in history for all the slave dealing he did. Very easy to part with a few quit to build a school - which is then named after you when you have made millions off the slave trade. It about public adoration. The x foundation is named after x - as a legacy. Even very recently a direct decendant was arguing that renaming the Colston hall wasn't appropriate as it didn't help history reconcile with its past or some other rubbish. He then went all to recommend that school children and locals should set up the 'Colston development fund' to 'do good' in African countries - or something if I remember rightly -do you see a theme here keeping the name and legacy going. I seem to remember he was double surnamed too and was hanging on to the Colston bit. My family name will live on..... But some people just can't see it. Maybe Google the family tree. Maybe look at the blood on our royal families hands - and yes we should get rid of them. Norman Baker and what do you do. Should be compulsory reading.

Surely it would be hypocritical to even enter a building that any money from the slave trade helped build?! Wouldn’t we be better to knock these buildings down, ease our conscience knowing that we aren’t enjoying anything this money is associated with...and as someone else said, write a new history?

I am 100% behind the BLM movement.

But I'm not sure why every BAME issue is linked back to the slave trade.

History is full of evil, every single race and ethnicity has been persecuted and murdered at one point or another.

I wish people would focus on the slave trade that continues TODAY to supply drugs to the West. 31000 murders in Mexico ALONE last year.

There is real life slavery going on today and nobody speaks about it. We can't change the past but there are people we can save today.

As for the statue, yes it should have been taken down before without question, but the video made me uneasy for some reason.

@Cakecakes2011

Jimmy Saville raised loads of money for hospitals. Loads. Literally millions.

While relentlessly and disgustingly abusing countless victims.

Do you genuinely believe that a statue of him would be justified by that fact?

Really? Do you think he is worthy, from the grave, of being a 'sir'?

Really? Now imagine that times thousands more victims.

He raised lots of money for people jn need. I'm not questioning that.

He does not deserve a statue in his honour, or plaudits for his charity work, because what he is is so awful that it cannot ever morally outdo what was been done by him.

Surely you can understand that?

It should have been gone. Yet still would have been there for years yet. Quite right that it is sunk. I can’t believe someone thinks there should be a statue to him and the victims like they are equable halves of the same equation. One one side their was might and power and on the other tens of thousands of ruined lives. Christ the juxtaposition would have been appalling, like having some SAS statues overseeing A concentration camp. No ducker would suggest that, except an apologist.

Thrilled it's gone!
It has grated at me for years along with the numerous other reminders of the city's past as a hub in the transatlantic slave trade.
Shoulder to the door, and puuuuush, everyone!

Edward Colston gave huge amounts of money to schools hospitals and churches in the city of Bristol and represented the city in parliament. But how he earned some of his money is wrong.

Why don't they get to Trafalgar Square and pull down the statue of George Washington. He owned slaves.