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In June 2020, nearly 300 years after his death, the infamous Edward Colston statue was toppled and thrown into the Bristol Harbour by Black Lives Matter protestors. But who is Colston and why did he suddenly become relevant again? Keep watching to find out.

Edward Colston was born in November 1636 in Temple Street, Bristol, England. It is thought that he was the eldest of 11 or 15 siblings (the exact number is not known). After spending several years as an apprentice in the Mercers Company, he became a merchant in London in 1672. Like his father, he traded textiles, oils, wine, sherry, and cod. He became a remarkably successful merchant with trade relations in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and across Africa. By 1680, he had become a member of the Royal African Company, which held a monopoly on trading gold, silver, ivory and slaves across the west coast of Africa. From 1689 to 1690, Edward Colston served as the deputy governor of the company. In 1692, his association with the company ended.

In the 12 years that he was involved with the company, it is thought that the company transported over 84,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Carribean and the Americas. Of those, 19,000 are estimated to have died on the journey. The remaining were sold to work on tobacco and sugar plantations. Even though Colston distanced himself from the company, he continued to trade slaves privately. He retired from his business ventures in 1708, and was the Member of Parliament for Bristol from 1710 to 1713.

Colston never married and did not have an heir. For this reason, he donated a large amount of his wealth to charities, and supported and endowed several schools, houses for the poor, hospitals and churches in Bristol, London, and other parts of England. Due to his philanthropic works, several buildings in Bristol are named in memory of Edward Colston. In addition to two roads and a regional bread, there are also several statues and stained-glass windows made as memorials for him.

Since at least the 1990s, there has been increasing recognition of Colston’s role in the slave trade, and growing criticism of his commemoration. In 2017, the charity that manages Colston Hall, a music venue in Bristol, decided to drop the name of Colston. Though there were over 10,000 signatures against this move, the charity went ahead and renamed the concert venue. A year later, the Colston Primary School also rebranded itself to distance itself from the Colston name.

On 7th June 2020, Colston’s famous statue, designed by John Cassidy and erected in 1895, was toppled and pushed into Bristol Harbour by Black Lives Matter demonstrators. A few days later, the Bristol City Council retrieved the statue and took it to a secure location, intending on turning it into a museum exhibit in the future. Though we don’t condone acts of vandalism, the event was a much-needed reminder of the disgraceful involvement in slave trade by numerous wealthy English aristocrats, including some royals.

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