FFS
Ed was more than just a slave trader. He made more money doing other stuff. All his money is what built Bristol.
2 of its top schools, the suspension bridge, hospitals, universities, plus.lots lots more.
He spent just 11 years as a trader. They also say he would have lost more ships hands than the slaves.
All this was almost 300 years ago, and after (for whatever reason) he stopped doing the slave trade, he put his money into building Bristol.
People act like all he ever did, was the slave trade. What he did was transport slaves from Bristol to America's. They were already here (so to speak).
The slave trade was a nasty part of history, that should never be forgotten. Ironically, with his statue gone from his plinth, it's not going to be talked about so much. Cos there won't be the statue to start people thinking and talking about what happened back then.
It was a sad part of Britain's history, that many major players at them time were involved in, including several kings.
His statue was vandalised and disgracefully thrown into the harbour, by people jumping on the march.
I saw this post and had hoped it was a Bristolian saddened by what happened, like so many people in the city. Sadly, it's another person jumping on the bandwagon, and not knowing much about the whole.pereon.