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Edward Colston

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For other people named Edward Colston, see Edward Colston (disambiguation).

Edward Colston
1722 portrait by George Vertue, after Jonathan Richardson
Member of Parliament for Bristol
In office
1710–1713
Personal details
Born(1636-11-02)2 November 1636
Bristol, England
Died11 October 1721(1721-10-11) (aged 84)
Mortlake, Surrey, England
Political partyTory
OccupationMerchant

Edward Colston (2 November 1636 – 11 October 1721) was an English merchant, Member of Parliament, philanthropist, and slave trader. His wealth was largely acquired through the trade and exploitation of slaves.[1][2][3][4][5]

Colston utilized his finances attained from the slave-trade to support and endow schools, hospitals, almhouses and churches in Bristol, London and elsewhere. His name is commemorated by several Bristol landmarks, streets, three schools and the Colston bun. Charitable foundations inspired by ones he founded still survive.[6]

Early life

Colston was born on 2 November 1636 in Church Street, Bristol, the eldest of at least 11 and possibly as many as 15 children. His parents were William Colston (born 1608; died 1681), a prosperous merchant who was High Sheriff of Bristol in 1643, and his wife Sarah (born 1608; died 1701), daughter of Edward Batten. He was brought up in Bristol until the time of the English Civil War, when he probably lived for a while on his father's estate in Winterbourne, just north of the city. The family then moved to London where Edward may have been a pupil at Christ's Hospital school.[7]

Career

Colston was apprenticed to the Mercers Company for eight years and by 1672 was shipping goods from London. He built up a lucrative business, trading cloth, oil, wine, sherry and fruit with Spain, Portugal, Italy and Africa.

In 1680, Colston became a member of the Royal African Company, which had held the monopoly in England on trading along the west coast of Africa in gold, silver, ivory and slaves from 1662.[7] Colston rose rapidly on to the board of the company and became Deputy Governor, the Company's most senior executive position, from 1689 to 1690; his association with the company ended in 1692.[8] This company had been set up by King Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York, (later King James II, who was the Governor of the company), together with City of London merchants, and it had many notable investors, including John Locke, English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism" (though he later changed his stance on the slave trade), and the diarist Samuel Pepys.[9][10]

During Colston's involvement with the Royal African company (1680 to 1692), it is estimated that the company transported around 84,000 African men, women and children, who had been traded as slaves in West Africa, of whom 19,000 died on their journey to the Caribbean and the rest of the Americas.[11] Due to the conditions on many of the vessels, the extended journeys affected the ship's crew mortality rates which were often similar and sometimes greater than the mortality rates amongst the slaves.[12] The slaves were sold to planters for cheap labour on their tobacco, and, increasingly, sugar plantations who considered Africans would be more suited to the conditions than their own countrymen, as the climate resembled the climate of their homeland in West Africa. Enslaved Africans were also much less expensive to maintain than indentured servants or paid wage labourers from Britain.[13]

Colston's parents had resettled in Bristol and in 1682 he made a loan to the Bristol Corporation, the following year becoming a member of the Society of Merchant Venturers and a burgess of the City. In 1684 he inherited his brother's mercantile business in Small Street, and was a partner in a sugar refinery in St Peter's Churchyard, shipping sugar produced by slaves from St Kitts. However, Colston was never resident in Bristol as an adult, carrying on his London business from Mortlake in Surrey until he retired in 1708.[7]

The proportion of his wealth that came from his involvement in the slave trade and slave-produced sugar is unknown, and can only be the subject of conjecture unless further evidence is unearthed.[14] As well as this income, he made money from his trade in the normal commodities mentioned above, interest from money lending, and, most likely, from other careful financial dealings.[14]

Altruism and politics

Cromwell House, Mortlake, where Colston died in 1721

Colston supported and endowed schools, almshouses, hospitals and churches in Bristol, London and elsewhere. Many of his charitable foundations survive to this day.[6]

In Bristol, he founded almshouses in King Street and on St Michael's Hill, endowed Queen Elizabeth's Hospital school and helped found Colston's Hospital, a boarding school which opened in 1710 leaving an endowment to be managed by the Society of Merchant Venturers for its upkeep. He gave money to schools in Temple (one of which went on to become St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School) and other parts of Bristol, and to several churches and the cathedral. He was a strong Tory and high-churchman, and was returned as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol in 1710 for just one parliament.[7]

David Hughson writing in 1808 described Colston as "the great benefactor of the city of Bristol, who, in his lifetime, expended more than 10,000L. [£] in charitable institutions".[15]

Death

Engraving of Colston's monument in All Saints' Church, Bristol from Bristol Past and Present (1882)

At the age of 84, Colston died on 11 October 1721 at his home, (old) Cromwell House (demolished 1857), in Mortlake. In his will he wished to be buried simply without pomp, but this instruction was ignored.[16] His body was carried back to Bristol and was buried at All Saints' Church. His monument was designed by James Gibbs with an effigy carved by John Michael Rysbrack.[17]

Modern reappraisal

In recent decades, with increasing recognition of Colston's role in the slave trade, there has been growing criticism of the commemoration of Colston in Bristol.[18]

Statue

Main article: Statue of Edward Colston
Statue of Edward Colston formerly in The Centre, Bristol, erected in 1895, toppled in 2020
File:Edward Colston Thrown Bristol Harbour.webp
The statue being thrown into the Bristol Harbour by protestors on 7 June, 2020.

A statue, designed by John Cassidy, was erected in the centre of Bristol in 1895 to commemorate Colston's philanthropy.[19]

In recent years, campaigns have called for the removal of the statue, describing it as a disgraceful memorial considering Colston's profiting from the slave trade.[20] Petitions circulated and, in 2018, Thangam Debbonaire, Labour MP for Bristol West, wrote to Bristol City Council calling for the removal of the statue.[20] An unofficial art installation surrounded the statue for a number of months, starting in 2018, including a hundred supine figurines representing people Colston enslaved and trafficked across the Atlantic in slave ships. Another artistic intervention saw a ball and chain attached to the statue.[20]

In 2018, an official plaque was arranged for the statue to inform the public about more of Colston's history.[21] Tory councillor Richard Eddy and the Society of Merchant Venturers (an organisation Colton belonged to) objected to the wording and were successful in, among other things, removing mention of Colston's role as a Tory MP and selective nature of his philanthropy, and disputed the exact number and ages of the thousands of children he trafficked.[21] Following the challenges, Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees ordered a re-write of the proposed plaque, instructing more parts of the community to be involved in the wording than previously.[21]

On 7 June 2020, the statue was toppled and thrown into Bristol Harbour by demonstrators during the George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom.[22] Historian and television presenter David Olusoga commented that it should have been taken down earlier, saying: "Statues are about saying 'this was a great man who did great things'. That is not true, he [Colston] was a slave trader and a murderer."[23] Home Secretary Priti Patel called the toppling "utterly disgraceful", saying that "it speaks to the acts of disorder, public disorder, that actually have now become a distraction from the cause in which people are actually protesting about".[24]

After the statue was removed, a petition began to have a statue of Paul Stephenson OBE erected in its place.[25] The former Bristol youth worker is a Black man who was instrumental in the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott, inspired by the one in Montgomery, Alabama, in the United States, that brought an end to an illegal employment colour ban in Bristol bus companies.[26]

Other memorials

Colston's name permeates the city in such landmarks as Colston Tower, Colston Hall, Colston Avenue, Colston Street, Colston's Girls' School, Colston's School, Colston's Primary School and Temple Colston School (now part of St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School). He is also remembered, particularly by some schools, charities and the Society of Merchant Venturers, on Colston's Day on 13 November, his birthday, at a church service now at St Stephen's Church. A regional bread bun, the Colston bun, is named after him.[7][27]

In April 2017, the charity that runs the Colston Hall, the Bristol Music Trust,[28] announced that it will drop the name of Colston when it reopens after refurbishment in 2020. There had been protests and petitions calling for a name change and some concertgoers and artists had boycotted the venue because of the Colston name.[29] Following the decision, petitions to retain the name of Colston reached almost 10,000 signatures, though the charity confirmed that the name change would go ahead.[30]

In November 2017, after decades of debates, Colston's Girls' School, which is funded by the Society of Merchant Venturers, announced that it was not going to drop the name of Colston because it was of "no benefit" to the school to do so.[31] In February 2019, St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School announced that it would be renaming Colston House as Johnson House, after the American mathematician Katherine Johnson.[32]

In summer 2018, after consultation with pupils and parents, Colston Primary School renamed itself Cotham Gardens Primary School, the first Bristol organisation to take such a move.[33]

See also

References

  1. ^ Hayton, David; Cruickshanks, Eveline; Handley, Stuart (April 2006). "Colston, Edward II". The History of Parliament. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  2. ^ Morgan, Kenneth (1999). "Colston, Edward (1636-1721)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  3. ^ Pocock, Nigel; Cook, Victoria (5 November 2009). "The Business of Enslavement". BBC – History – British History in depth. BBC. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  4. ^ "Virtual Tour of the Black and Asian Presence in Bristol, 1500 – 1850". Black presence. The National Archives. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  5. ^ Dresser, Madge (2000). "Squares of distinction, webs of interest: Gentility, urban development and the slave trade in Bristol c.1673–1820". Slavery & Abolition a Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies. 21 (3). Routledge: 22. doi:10.1080/01440390008575319. ISSN 1743-9523. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. (subscription required)
  6. ^ a b "Edward Colston, the Dolphin Society and 268 years of letter-writing…History / Background". The Dolphin Society. 16 May 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  7. ^ a b c d e Morgan, Kenneth (September 2004). "Colston, Edward". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5996. Retrieved 14 August 2010. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  8. ^ "COLSTON, Edward II (1636–1721), of Mortlake, Surr. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  9. ^ "Britain's involvement with New World slavery and the transatlantic slave trade". The British Library. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  10. ^ Matthew., Parker (2011). The sugar barons: family, corruption, empire, and war in the West Indies. New York: Walker & Co. p. 126. ISBN 9780802717443. OCLC 682894539.
  11. ^ {{subst:Citation needed}}
  12. ^ Curtin, Philip D. (1969). The Atlantic slave trade: a census. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 282–286. ISBN 0299054004. OCLC 46413.
  13. ^ "Slavery in the Caribbean - International Slavery Museum, Liverpool museums". www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  14. ^ a b Morgan, Kenneth (1999). Edward Colston and Bristol. Bristol: Bristol Branch of the Historical Association. p. 3.
  15. ^ Hughson, David (1808). "Circuit of London". London; Being An Accurate History And Description of the British Metropolis And Its Neighbourhood, To Thirty Miles Extent, From An Actual Perambulation. Vol. V. Holborn Hill, London: J Stratford. p. 386.
  16. ^ Edward Colston Will, National archives Wills Online
  17. ^ Historic England. "Church of All Saints (1282313)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 16 March 2003.
  18. ^ Wilkins, H. J. (1920). Edward Colston (1636–1721 A.D.), a chronological account of his life and work. Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith.
  19. ^ "Edward Colston". PMSA National Recording Project. Archived from the original on 9 January 2010. Retrieved 9 May 2007.
  20. ^ a b c Grubb, Sophie (5 June 2020). "'It's a disgrace' - Thousands call for removal of controversial Bristol statue". Bristol Live. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  21. ^ a b c Cork, Tristan (25 March 2019). "Second Colston statue plaque not axed and will still happen but mayor steps in to order a re-write". Bristol Live. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  22. ^ Diver, Tony (7 June 2020). "Statue of slave trader Edward Colston pulled down and thrown into harbour by Bristol protesters". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  23. ^ "George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue". BBC News. 7 June 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  24. ^ "Priti Patel: Toppling Edward Colston statue 'utterly disgraceful'". Sky News. 7 June 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  25. ^ Ross, Alex (7 June 2020). "Petition calls for statue of Bristol civil rights activist Paul Stephenson to be erected in Colston's place". Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  26. ^ Webb, Elizabeth (7 October 2019). "The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963". Black History 365. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  27. ^ Davidson, Alan (1999). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-19-211579-9.
  28. ^ "About us". Colston Hall. Bristol Music Society. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  29. ^ Morris, Steven (26 April 2017). "Bristol's Colston Hall to drop name of slave trader after protests". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  30. ^ Ballinger, Alex (12 May 2017). "Petitions to stop Colston Hall name change reach 9k signatures". bristolpost. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  31. ^ Yong, Michael (2 November 2017). "One of Bristol's oldest schools is not changing its name". bristolpost. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  32. ^ Ballinger, Alex (11 February 2019). "Edward Colston: Bristol school to remove slave trader's name from house". BBC News. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  33. ^ Yong, Michael (11 September 2018). "Colston's Primary School starts life as Cotham Gardens after dropping slave trader's name". Bristol Live. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
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