Discussing this history is difficult, but the Colston Four’s acquittal gives me hope that Britain’s legacy is being recognised
Many things were remarkable about the trial of the Colston Four, who last week were found not guilty of criminal damage for pulling down the statue of the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston and throwing it into Bristol harbour. Among them was the fact that the four defendants were white, as was the judge and, reportedly, most of the jurors. It made me wonder, are white people increasingly recognising the significance of Britain’s legacy of slavery?
In my view, white people in Britain have a special responsibility when it comes to this legacy. After all, the vast majority of those who transported the captured Africans to the Caribbean were white. Similarly, the vast majority of those who “bought” these enslaved people and made them work on the appalling sugar, cotton and coffee plantations were white. The same is true of the shipowners and sailors, bankers and insurance officers, traders, dockworkers, shopkeepers and countless others involved in selling the commodities back in Britain. This includes my own family, who made money importing tobacco from American and Cuban plantations that were worked on by enslaved people. As to the general population who gained from the enormous wealth that poured into Britain on the back of slavery, again the vast majority were white.
Thomas Harding is the author of White Debt: the Demerara Uprising and Britain’s Legacy of Slavery
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