Remember this?
That’s a statue of Edward Colston, the slave trader, being thrown into the river by the citizens of Bristol.
There’s a new monument there now.
They can’t tear it down! That would be erasing History!!!
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
We need a lot more monuments like that.
That is a large crowd. If there were so many people who believed the statue should stand, where were they?
One thing in the Colston case that is rarely brought up is the fact that hardly anybody wanted the statue in the first place, even at the height of Colston’s 19th Century fame. It took several years and many, many rounds of fundraising by the obsessive Colston fan whose idea the whole thing was to even scrape together half the funds, and he had to pay most of the rest from his own pocket. Even the four great Bristolian philanthropic societies – one of which bears Colston’s name – didn’t want to pay for the thing.
There are plans a foot ,or even 30cm ,groan ,to stick it in a museum .
thttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-57350650
Meanwhile, the pro-slavery forces are attempting to cancel the exhibition of the statue (with graffiti) at a local museum!
The plaque is a lot more interesting than the statue.
My one criticism of the museum show is that it should be displayed in a tank of dirty river water like a Damien Hirst exhibit.
@davidc1, well they’ve got to do something with that toxic metal removed from the water.
Personally, I’d recommend melting it down to make replacement bearings for a certain large clock in London.
The exhibition in the M Shed museum in Bristol is only temporary &msash; and provides a great deal of context. As I currently understand it, the purpose of the exhibition there is to promote a fact-full discussion of what should be done with the statue.
Also, the sign in the OP was put up “unofficially”, so there is a possibility it won’t be allowed to stay up (Bristol City Council is notorious for having its arse stuffed firmly up its collective head).
I think you’ll find that this is the wrong sort of history, and ought to be disposed of with an over abundance of hand wringing and cries of “Won’t somebody please think of the children”. ( but only the rich white male children, of course).
I don’t think certain types of history enthusiasts care much for this kind of history.
Two asides: The bridge in the background of the first photo is Pero’s Bridge, named after Pero Jones, an enslaved person in Bristol. (Probably no direct connection to Colston, who was dead long before Pero is thought to have been born.)
And the very fuzzy reddish building in the right background of the second photo is the old Bristol Industrial Museum, which is now the M Shed Museum, where the Colston statue is currently residing.
@7 I have heard that metals cast before August 1945 are more valuable ,because of the Atom bombs .
In fact some barks are salvaging ships sunk during WW2 ,even though a lot of them are classified as war graves .
@11, Yes, but particularly if the metal has been shielded since before 1945 or so, i.e., not-exposed to atmospheric fallout. High-quality steel from sunken warships — such as at Scapa Flow — is, as I now recall from possibly faulty memory, particularly prized. Not all of the ships sunk at Scapa Flow are war graves (e.g., the scuttled WW I German fleet), albeit I do not know if any salvaging (legal or not) has happened at that site.
@12 It happens a lot in the Pacific i believe .The only ship i recall being sunk at Scapa Flow was the Royal Oak .
davidc1 @13: Wikipedia is our friend ;-)
Rob G@14 Wikipedia is also a friend unless I am the only one here who has never heard of low-background steel. TIL: