Taxpayers in Bristol were still paying debt to city’s slave owners in 2015
First let’s start with the backstory. “Taxpayers in Bristol in 2015 were still paying off the debt borrowed by the Government to pay millions in ‘compensation’ to the owners of slaves, the Treasury has admitted.
So huge was the £20 million the Government spent in 1833 to reimburse the rich owners of slaves, that it took the taxpayer 182 years to pay it off.
The information was revealed by the Treasury under a Freedom of Information request – but when officials decided to tweet out the revelation, the way they did it sparked such a furious backlash they quickly deleted the tweet.” [read more…]
At the Black Lives Matter demonstration in Bristol, protestors toppled the statue of slave trader Edward Colston.
Who was Colston? He was a Bristol-born English merchant, philanthropist, slave trader, and Member of Parliament. Now his statue is in the river.
“The bronze memorial, which had been in place since 1895, had been the subject of an 11,000-strong petition to have it removed. Residents, including the city’s big community that hails from the Caribbean, are ashamed of what Colston represents.
Colston has been a figure of huge controversy in Bristol with attempts made to rename Colston Hall, the biggest music venue in the city among many efforts to “decolonize” the city.” [read more…]
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Related Links:
• Taxpayers in Bristol were still paying debt to city’s slave owners in 2015, Treasury admits
• Watery end for statue of slave trader in UK city of Bristol
• WATCH: Toppled Edward Colston statue dumped in harbour