In 2014 a journalist entered a ceremony at the Bristol Cathedral and witnessed an event celebrating the historical figure and slavetrader, Edward Colston.
Soon after Dr Roger Ball from the Bristol Radical History group began his research into this Bristolian figure.
“I have got to say I was quite shocked when I started work on Colston, I suddenly realized he wasn’t just some indirect investor but he was the second in command of the whole of the British slave trade,” he said.
The Counter Colston campaign was born out of this research and in association with the BRH group they began to call for end to physical celebrations which were still going on and to call out any institutions who refused to deal with the history.
On Saturday the 18th, M Shed is hosting the Radical History Festival. Many events will appear, among them a talk around the real story behind the Counter Colston campaign.
The discussion is set to reveal the truth behind the movement that triggered one of the most famous protests in the city of Bristol, which saw the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in 2020.
Roger Ball says that it is called the real story because they will reveal the battle “between those people who had a financial and ideological interest in protecting the Colston legacy and the campaign and those who supported it”.
They will be talking about the issues they faced and how the statue was only a small part of a bigger campaign of removing Edward Colston as a symbol for the city.
