Guilt City

200 years ago slavery was abolished in this country, but despite this fact Bristol is still a breeding ground of resent and guilt due to the part it played in the slave trade. Bristol is a city in which the pride and the shame of its history are intrinsically linked.

Much of Bristol's success is due to merchants who profited through selling slaves, working in what was called the triangular trade, in which goods from Bristol were used to buy slaves in Africa which were then sold in the caribbean. Bristol's main concert hall along with a number of schools are named after one of the most successful of these merchants, Edward Colston, and there are many other places in Bristol where the slave merchants' mark can still be seen, creating a constant reminder of a history that Bristol has long been trying to forget.

The resentment and guilt has made it hard for Bristol to move forward, away from its dark past, highlighted most recently by the naming of a new development in the centre of Bristol, proposed to be called 'Merchants Quarter'. If you didn't know the full context of this name you might think it a perfectly reasonable name for the retail development; an area named after the group that brought prosperity to Bristol throughout its seafaring history, even after the abolition of slavery. It also of course is a name that describes the activities that will be taking place within it. But for many in Bristol it is an offensive reminder of Bristol's slave trade past. After much campaigning the developers eventually conceded and agreed to change the name of the development which has now lead to a campaign for Bristol to go one step further and officially apologise for its part in the slave trade. A large public meeting took place in Bristol to debate and vote on the need for an apology concluding that an apology was indeed needed. Interestingly, as it now turns out Bristol did actually apologise over twenty years ago, but this apology has been rejected by a leading figure in the campaigning Afro-Caribbean community, arguing that a wider national debate is needed.

But just what is going to suffice? The fact is that Bristol (and many parts of Britain) benefited greatly from the slave trade and many of the buildings were built on this blood money, but no-one is proud of Bristol's slave past and much has been done since to make some recompense for the part that Bristol played. However much we try and forget, we cannot change the past, changing the name of the Colston Hall (which has previously been campaigned for) will not change anything nor will eradicating every visible memory of the Merchants of Bristol's past. There comes a time when we just have to move forward, an apology 200 years after the event is an empty gesture and is concentrating on the wrong issue. Instead of looking to the mistakes of the past we should be looking at the issues around us today. An apology will settle nothing, as would seem to be evident in the fact that the existing apology has been rejected. This call for an apology it seems is just a mask for the level of resentment created by the racial splits existent in our society today, in which much of the ethnic-minorities still remain amongst the working class are often marginalised by the dominant white middle class. Why don't we tackle the real issue here and not keep Bristol in an indefinite and inescapable feeling of guilt?