Jun 2020
12:04pm, 8 Jun 2020
64,458 posts
|
swittle
Trade in slaves; trade generated by slavery. The link is clear enough, is it not?
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Jun 2020
12:08pm, 8 Jun 2020
11,773 posts
|
Markymarkmark
Let's face it - history isn't very nice, for the most part, is it? A problem by no means unique to the UK. |
Jun 2020
12:09pm, 8 Jun 2020
7,560 posts
|
jda
We can't erase our history, and shouldn't attempt it: a lot of the UK is built on oppression, slavery and exploitation, as is undoubtedly the case for other countries. The question is whether we honour and celebrate it. Until recently there was an annual service of thanksgiving for Colston, which may help to provide a bit more context. |
Jun 2020
12:10pm, 8 Jun 2020
5,406 posts
|
Raemond
Bristol used to have a good history of the slave trade museum next to Temple Meads (where the exploratory used to be, if that means anything to anyone) - and I recall the public vote that resulted in a new bridge around the turn of the minnellium being named after an enslaved boy who managed to escape iirc. That's the way forward, imho, commemorate the victims not the perpetrators of historic atrocity rather than glossing over anything. |
Jun 2020
12:10pm, 8 Jun 2020
16,653 posts
|
Bazoaxe
Indeed. I had a holiday in Kenya in 1991 and we booked a day trip to Mombasa which included a stop at what used to be the slave market but was now (I think) a fruit and veg market. I did feel really uncomfortable when being shown round and hearing stories of what had gone on.
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Jun 2020
12:12pm, 8 Jun 2020
14,130 posts
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richmac
I agree Mmm, but, to paraphrase Bozo, isn't it time we moved on and revised our opinion of our dead empire? This includes reconciliation with the evils that were committed to enrich this land. We need to have up to this not just say 'what about everyone else' |
Jun 2020
12:19pm, 8 Jun 2020
19,343 posts
|
DeeGee
The introductory History curriculum at secondary schools now involves a far more frank discussion of how Britain's "greatness" was at the cost of slavery and also brutality within the empire, in considerably more depth than anything I looked at. My wife's just finished writing a scheme of work on it. Of course, some would argue that's just the traitorous leftie wokeism hating Britain that's endemic in education these days. |
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Jun 2020
12:19pm, 8 Jun 2020
11,775 posts
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Markymarkmark
Bazo, I had similar experiences and reactions in Kilham Gaol (Dublin), and the exhibition on Child Migrant Labour in the Liverpool Maritime Museum. Anyone talking about unalloyed "pride" in "British" history should be forced to tour some of these places. Equally though, the Peace Museum in Caen made me sad (but grateful) in an entirely different way. Our history is important. Our museums are important. But the issue we have in our society is also "now" and it can't all be about history. There has to be some kind of truth, acceptance (on all side) and forgiveness process to move on. |
Jun 2020
12:26pm, 8 Jun 2020
16,194 posts
|
Chrisull
The historian threads/articles on the Colston statue are very informative. This is on how it came to be there: brh.org.uk This is partially on why it was still up there: twitter.com Yes it makes me uneasy when mob rule comes knocking, but as pointed out by many other historians, since Roman times statues of unpopular figures often end up in the river/sea. Bottom line, it shouldn't have been still up, it wasn't going to be removed any time soon, and occasionally (as with the Chartists/Suffragettes) it takes public protest to bloody do the correct thing. Priti Patel condemning the knocking down of this statue while implicitly endorsing the toppling of Saddam, Stalin, and Lenin's statues is hypocrisy and no amount of what aboutery from the right can get over it. My main concern is the right will use the civil disturbance as an attempt to discredit the whole Black Lives Matter cause, but they've been doing that for decades anyway, so not much has changed. |
Jun 2020
12:27pm, 8 Jun 2020
23,384 posts
|
Johnny Blaze
I visited Robben Island in SA years ago. Now, they "could" have levelled the place, post-apartheid, as a place of wickedness and inhumanity, but they chose to make it a museum instead. Correct decision in my opinion. Those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat it etc. |
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