The Transatlantic Slave Trade is a dark area of Bristol’s history, and it’s important we can understand the city’s role in it.
By the 1740s, ideas of equality and natural human rights were gaining popularity amongst British intellectuals. Councillors turned down the plans, but the developers won on appeal earlier this year, just as the idea of an Abolition Shed alternative emerged. Although the tide of public opinion was turning against slavery, there were still many with powerful vested interests in its favour. What are the city’s links to Somalia?
“It’s got to the stage that only a direct appeal to Mayor Rees can let us take forward the project.”. But other factors played a part, economic and social as well as philosophical. This story was published as part of a series on Bristol’s Black history.
It was vast and impersonal, treating people as if they were cash goods and transporting them in huge numbers over long distances.
Street names such as Guinea Street, Jamaica Street, Codrington Place, Tyndall’s Park, Worral and Stapleton Roads recall the city’s involvement with Africa and the West Indies. When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. The street name comes from the Black Boy Inn. As well as owning slaves in the Americas, he kept a slave called Pero - who the bridge across the harbour near the Watershed is named after - at his home in Bristol. M Shed is part of Bristol Museums M Shed is part of Bristol Museums. By closing this message, you are consenting to our use of cookies. Virginian and West Indian plantations run by British landowners profited from cheap, reliable labour to produce sugar, rum, tobacco, cotton and other lucrative commodities. Once enslaved and now free, Equiano was the first black African to publish attacks against the slave trade. The legacy of slavery continues in a more tangible form in Bristol. This trade also serviced Virginia and other slave-holding British colonies in North America. 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. Many Merchant Venturers were members of the Corporation of Bristol and had allies in the Church of England. The European traders sold them on at a profit to the plantation owners of the British Caribbean or the North American colonies such as Virginia and South Carolina.
Bristol, slavery and the politics of representation: the Slave Trade Gallery in the Bristol Museum. Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol is a controversial monument to a wealthy man who founded schools and charities. If you like this, you might also like .
Between 1501 and 1866, over 12 million Africans are estimated to have been exported to the New World, around 2 million of whom probably died en route.