Legacy From Slavery in Bristol

The slave trade significantly influenced the growth of racism, most obviously in the U.S. where it is institutionalised, but also, less obviously, in Britain. Stories of slave rebellions, runaways and attacks on plantation owners were rife in the colonies and were also echoed in the British press and this succeeded in perpetuating the myth that black people were lawless, untrustworthy and violent. The slave trade in all its aspects, significantly influenced the growth of racial theory as a method for society to justify its unjustifiable actions. Thus racism was vindicated and impacted black people adversely over hundreds of years from the 17^th century on until today when official racism has long been outlawed in Britain though informal racism  still exists, allegedly, within the police force and employment.

Street names in Bristol such as Guinea Street, Jamaica Street, Codrington Place, Tyndall’s Park, Worral and Stapleton Roads are all references to Bristol’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. Using the wealth generated from the slave trade, many merchants invested in municipal land purchase, sponsoring cultural/municipal buildings and upgrading ships. The Theatre Royal in Bristol, the second oldest working theatre in Britain, was built as a result of very wealthy subscribers that directly or indirectly benefited from businesses involved in the slave trade, each pledging a substantial sum of money for the design and erection of the theatre, a locally prestigious project. Some municipal buildings and institutions such as schools were named after their slave trading benefactors; for example, Colston Hall, Colston Girls’ School and Colston Primary School [recently re-named Cotham Gardens Primary School following the defenestration [as it were] of Edward Colston’s statue.] Edward Colston was a Bristol-born slave trader, member of the Royal African Company and of the Merchant Venturers Society and a prominent local benefactor. He was perhaps the most important name in a veritable compendium of slave traders who used their wealth to bestow their names by funding prestigious municipal and other public projects.

A temporary name change while seeking a permanent new title
The Colston Arms re-named, for now, Ye olde Pubby Mcdrunkface

Georgian House in Bristol was originally built for John Pinney [1740-1818] who owned several sugar plantations in the West Indies. From 1762-1783 Pinney lived in Nevis running his plantations but in 1783 he returned home to Bristol, bringing two black attendants with him: Fanny Coker and Pero Jones, both bought by him in 1765 when Pinney also bought Pero’s sisters, Nancy and Sheeba but left the little girls to work on the Matravers Plantation in Nevis. There is related original documentation held by the University of Bristol Library recording the date of purchase of the little slave family with evidence of the physical appearance of each member of the family sold. Interestingly, Pero’s Bridge, a footbridge across the River Frome was opened in Bristol docks in 1999, and memorialises the black boy of 12 who died, aged 45, in 1798 in Ashton, Bristol after a lifetime of domestic service in the area.

Pero's Bridge, Bristol.

By the early 1960s, Bristol had an estimated 3000 residents of West Indian origin, some of whom had served in the British Army during WW2 and included a large number who had arrived, by invitation of the UK Government, as part of the Windrush generation from 1948 onward. [And for the recent (2018 on) Home Office hostile treatment of Windrush descendants, Google it!]There was a significant number of West Indians therefore, living in the St. Paul’s area of Bristol which had set up its own churches and other associations, developing a real sense of community in the face of[ widespread discrimination in housing and employment and sporadic violence from Teddy Boys, gangs of white racist youths.

The Bristol Omnibus Company at this time, openly employed only white bus drivers and conductors [while allowing black cleaners and maintenance men]. In fact this was in line with widespread racial discrimination in housing and employment in other British cities at this time. In Bristol, an organisation founded by Roy Hackett and led by youth worker, Paul Stephenson, and including the so-called West Indian Development Council, a local black pressure group, instigated what became known as the Bristol Bus Boycott in 1963. The idea had come from the indomitable Rosa Parks and her refusal to give up her seat for a white person which led to the ensuing Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama. The Bristol Bus Boycott drew overwhelming local support from black and many white residents and lasted for four months until the company backed down and overturned the discriminatory policy. The Boycott drew national attention to racial discrimination in Britain and attracted the active support of politicians, Church groups and the High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago, the famous Leary Constantine.

Old [1950s] Bristol Omnibus Company bus.

The Bristol Omnibus Company was a nationalised company owned by the U.K. Government from 1950. Despite an acknowledged shortage of bus crews, black men were considered only for lower paid work in canteens and workshops. The policy was blamed by the Company management on the insistence of the Transport and General Workers’ Union [T.G.W.U.] This was denied by T.G.W.U. officials despite a 1955 T.G.W.U. resolution that ‘coloured’ workers could not be employed as bus crews and that if such happened, “if one black man steps on the platform as a conductor, every wheel will stop.” The underlying fear was of reducing wages from increased competition. The four months involving a war of words in the local media; a refusal by the T.G.W.U. to meet a delegation from the West Indian Development Council; plus perhaps some negotiation, was marked by real bitterness when Ron Nethercott, Regional Secretary of the Union, opined in the national Daily Herald, that Stephenson, who had emerged as the leader of the boycott, was dishonest and irresponsible. Stephenson, college-educated and articulate, sued in the High Court and won damages and costs in December 1963. Meanwhile, with the boycott causing increasing economic problems, and following a mass meeting of 500 bus workers on August 27^th it was announced that there would be no

Left to right:
Audley Evans; Paul Stephenson;  Owen Henry.
1963.

more discrimination in the selection of bus crews. Serendipitously, this announcement coincided with Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream ..” speech in Washington. On 17^th September 1963, Raghbir Singh, a Sikh, became Bristol’s first, non-white bus conductor with two Jamaican and two Pakistani men joining him ‘on the platform’ soon after.

Unite, the successor to the T.G.W.U. issued an apology for its shameful discriminatory actions and language in 1963. It was made by Lawrence Faircloth, the union’s South West Secretary, who agreed that its behaviour had been ‘completely unacceptable.’ Hilariously and appallingly, this public apology was made in FEBRUARY 2013. Oh, Perfidious Albion!

The Bristol Bus Boycott was believed to have been an important contributor to the passing of the Race Relations Act of 1965 which made ‘racial discrimination unlawful in public places’, and the Race Relations Act 1968 which extended the provisions to employment and housing.

Plaque attesting to Bristol as Capital of the Atlantic Slave
Trade, 1730-1745
From 12,000,000 captives, 6,000,000 died.

Colston Hall, Bristol.