Regarding the current debate about historical links to the slave trade, I find myself somewhat conflicted.
On the one hand, my heart was lifted when I watched moving images of the toppling of Edward Colston's statue in the city of Bristol last Sunday. To see him being roughly rolled down the street before being tossed into the dock seemed to me like poetic justice. It was from that very dock that his ships had sailed to pick up cargoes of slaves from West Africa before shipping them across The Atlantic.
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| Colston's statue tossed into the water like a dead African slave |
On the other hand, I think to myself: Where will this end? Where do you draw the line? At what point do you say - that is the past, let us leave it sleeping?
Of the first twelve American presidents only two did not own slaves - John Adams and John Quincy Adams. All the other ten owned different numbers of slaves - most of them whilst in office. For example, Thomas Jefferson owned over six hundred slaves and it is believed that he fathered several children with slave women so he was most likely a rapist as well as a slave owner.
The father of the nation - George Washington himself was also a slave owner. At his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, agricultural and domestic labour was undertaken by an army of 317 slaves. Attempts have been made to ameliorate Washington's reputation with regard to slavery but the bottom line is that he was a slave owner. Slaves who broke the rules were often whipped mercilessly at Mount Vernon.
Bristolians brought down the statue of Edward Colston so should Americans now pull down statues of George Washington? Should the state of Washington be renamed? Should Washington D.C. become Martin Luther King D.C.? Should the one dollar bill be reprinted with a picture of Mickey Mouse on it instead of the first president?
In a sense, there's not much difference between Colston and Washington. They both became wealthy through slavery.
We could go further back in time. Should we pull down The Great Pyramid at Giza and The Parthenon in Athens? Both were built by slaves - many of whom would have died during the construction of these great monuments to "civilisation".
I rest my case - still conflicted.
This is how Dh and I have been thinking, no one wants to have history repeated but we are now different people, aren't we?
ReplyDeleteThat was the world we came from. Should we try to obliterate history? It will still be there like the ghosts of slaves in The Great Pyramid. Are we different? In many ways we are the same.
DeleteWe can't obliterate history, there are slave chains from the Iron Age in a Welsh lake, slavery has gone on time immemorial. But nit picking American presidents doesn't help either. One could argue that 60 statues that have been picked in this country of those whose behaviour is definitely wrong, will not be missed and make space for new 'heroes'. The trouble is judging with hindsight, it makes a good moral tone, but then who would you throw out of the House of Lords?
ReplyDeleteI would consign The House of Lords to history. Archaic, expensive and unnecessary.
DeleteThe slave trade is here among us right now YP. Girls transported for the sex industry and those poor people who wash your car in the supermarket car parks are modern day slaves. There is always going to be some evil human out there ready to use others to make money.
ReplyDeleteThe past is gone but we could do something about it today if Governments cared enough, toppling a statue will solve nothing.
Briony
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You are so right Briony. Thank you for your take on this. By the way, I have never had my car washed at one of those places but I know what you are saying about them. I do not wish to support modern slavery in any way.
DeleteIt's difficult to avoid slavery as a consumer. According to a documentary I saw not long ago, much of the fruit and veg we consume at this time of year is picked in Spain by people who are little more than slaves.
ReplyDeleteIn Wirksworth there is a pub called the Black's Head. It's been there for decades and the sign portrays the face of a person of colour. (Or at least there was, last time I went.) How far do you go? The pub sign has never influenced my feelings and I always thought it rather sweet.
Statues that celebrate wealth acquired from abuse of others are a different matter and getting rid of them would send the message that we are serious about treating persons of colour differently these days.
As you illustrate, it's not the easiest issue to deal with. In Hull there is a famous old pub called "The Black Boy". The name references the slave trade and the Africans who passed through Hull on their way to The Americas. Should it be changed to "The Politically Correct Arms"?
DeleteThe story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings that you allude to (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Hemings) is a fascinating one and illustrates just how complicated race relations could be in the Old South. This is part of American history - pulling down a statue does not change that or deal with the injustice.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not Nan but symbols are important to people.
DeleteI was going to say the same as Briony, that slavery is still going on all over the world, even in our so-called "civilized" time and space.
ReplyDeleteHere in Germany, there is currently a debate going on about the statues dotted around the Reichssportfeld in Berlin, where the Olympics were held in 1936. The entire place was designed, furnished and decorated in a style typical for that time, based on the aesthetic principles embraced by the Nazi leaders. The statues themselves are beautiful, and the architecture impressive; should it all be destroyed? Should it be left where it is, and serve as a memorial, or be seen as the stylistic and artistic expression of a certain time and place?
In that particular case I would argue to keep those classical statues. It was a phase in Germany's history. That aspiration - towards classical ideals was most interesting. Something to look back upon with curiosity - just like the exhibits in The Pergamon Museum in Berlin. They cannot obliterate what happened.
DeleteI believe that a good place to start would be for Americans to at least acknowledge that our country was built on the backs, blood, and bones of slaves.
ReplyDeleteIt is incredibly complex and there is absolutely no doubt that those men and women, bought, sold, worked, raped, tortured and killed have never been given credit and their ancestors are still being treated in horrible ways. It goes on and on.
I fear that the anger and newsworthiness surrounding the killing of George Floyd may become dulled - like a fire that has stopped raging. As you suggest, there are no simple solutions.
DeleteI've no doubt that if we knew our own distant ancestry we'd all find some kind of brutality somewhere. All of us. Including those who tore down the Colston statue. And as we don't know it, we can't learn from it.
ReplyDeleteI take your point.
DeleteI certainly see how our "Founding Fathers" history is problematic and that should be openly acknowledged and discussed, but I'm not necessarily for removing those monuments. I feel differently about Civil War monuments, though.I think that removing statues of Confederate generals and memorials to Confederate soldiers is absolutely the right thing to do...they belong in museums, not in our public spaces. The Confederate army was made up of traitors to our country who didn't want to be part the United States anymore. Most of the statues of generals like Robert E. Lee didn't even go up until the 1940s and 1950s anyway, during the height of Jim Crow times, and were put there with the express purpose of letting white people in the South glorify and be proud of their racist, traitorous ancestors who fought in that war. It was also another way to show black people what their communities really thought of them and their struggles for civil rights. To this day LOTS of people (all Trump voters of course) here continue to defend that hateful flag and scream and cry when their Confederate "heroes" statues come down. I say, good riddance. Should have happened decades ago.
ReplyDeleteThanks for filling me in on this background Jennifer. Very interesting.
DeleteI agree completely. We cannot simply erase these people or our history and pretend it didn't exist. (That would be an injustice to the oppressed as much as the oppressors.) Personally, I would much rather have seen the Colston statue moved to a museum, where its backstory could be fully explained, or put in storage. I wonder if the city could or would raise it from the river and do that? If not, they could at least scrap it -- the metal alone is valuable, I would think.
ReplyDeleteI believe that that is what Bristol is planning - complete with the protesters' placards.
DeleteI think it was removed from the harbour early this morning according to LBC radio!
DeleteA lot of these statues were made and erected before working class people even had a vote. Britain is still riddled with social class and the divisions are still very much in evidence. One thing I like about living in Ireland is the lack of social class.
ReplyDeleteAye, the Irish have no class... apart from Terry Wogan of course. He was a class act.
DeleteWe don't need monuments to greed, glorification of war, love of power, or any other negative traits. I'm not sure we need monuments to anybody, to be honest, because a good number of people who have contributed to society in positive ways were - like most folks - complicated people with undesirable traits or behaviors as well (eg., Albert Einstein). But if we must have public monuments, let them be of people who are, on balance, found worthy. Let the rest be in museums and history books.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you draw the line, indeed? I think it's obvious in many cases, but not in all.
Good point. Do we need to honour anybody in this way?
DeleteGood you drew the line so far back. We need to throw in a public lashing for those who captured and sold their fellow humans as slaves. This scene will play out forever.
ReplyDeleteIf we erase all evidence of injustice there won't be much left.
DeleteYour question is key. Where do we stop at this?
ReplyDeleteThe past is gone. Should Britain seek compensation from Scandinavian countries for the Viking invasions of the seventh and eighth centuries?
DeleteA part of me feels that without reminders of our Past's Horrors we might be more likely to repeat them... future Generations should know the injustices and those parts of History that are barbaric and inhumane. My Dad's side of the Family are Native American and it always bugged me in School that the Genocide of the Indigenous People of North America was never written about or talked of... but of coarse European atrocities were... and I found it to be hypocritical and a hiding of the Shame.
ReplyDeleteAs a boy I played "Cowboys and Indians" for we saw so many depictions of these people on our TV screens. The indians (Native Americans) were ruthless savages who spoke mumbo jumbo and whooped as they burnt down the ranches of hard-working white folk. In reality they could have taught us so much about Nature and living in peace upon the land.
DeleteI've lived in the Bristol area for over half a century and throughout that time repeated requests were made to the powers that be to have the statue removed, perhaps to be placed in the museum together with historical information about the period. The statue was created in the Victorian era. People were invited to give money for its creation, but very few did. It was eventually financed by just a few wealthy Bristolians, presumably the ones who thought up the idea in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe Sunday gathering was good-natured and, although they have been criticised, I think the local police were wise to let the action proceed without any interference. Thousands of Colston's cargo of humans, men, women and children were shipped across the Atlantic and those who died were dumped at sea. I was pleased to see Edward Colston tipped into the harbour, it seemed a fitting place for him to be.
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