Edward Colston plaque installed with new slave trade wording

A new plaque has been installed in the Zocalo where a statue of a slave merchant was once.

The statue of Edward Vromston in Bristol was demolished by a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020 and threw it into the port of the city.

Installed on April 17, the wing of the new plaque eliminates any mention of Vornston as a “city benefactor.”

In November, conservative councilor Richard Eddy voted against the review and called it “completely shameful.”

He said: “Eliminating the reference to Edward Colston, one of Bristol’s best children, being a benefactor is outrageous, a completely historical review that is worthy of the Nazis.”

The opposition councilors pointed to Mr. Eddy that Edward’s fortune came from the “forced transport of 84,000 slaves, almost 20,000 or who died,” said the local service of democracy reports.

Edward Colston was a prominent 17th -century slave merchant and his legacy has a source of controversy in Bristol for many years.

He was a member of the Royal African Company, which transported about 80,000 men, women and children from Africa to America.

At his death in 1721, beer his wealth against charities and his legacy can still be seen in the streets, monuments and buildings of Bristol.

After the statue was overthrown, a protester was photographed with the knee on the neck of the figure, which remembers the video that shows George Floyd, who died while he was restricted in that way by a Minnesota police officer.

Four people accused of illegally eliminating the statue were released from criminal damage in January 2022.

The statue is now on permanent exhibition in the Bristol People Gallery of M Shed in the city.

Seven years after its suggestion, the new plate has been placed under the original plate, part of the socket when the statue was first erected 130 years ago.

The new plaque says: “On November 13, 1895, a statue of Edward Colston (1636-1721) was presented here.

“At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, the celebration of Colston was increasingly challenging given its prominent role in the increase of Africans.

“On June 7, 2020, the statue was demolished by Black Lives Matter’s protests and rolled to the floating port.

“After a consultation with the city in 2021, the statue entered the museum collections of the City of Bristol.”