Monuments matter. That’s why the current debate about statues is important. They are material expressions of memory in the public realm. Some are potent national symbols of celebration or commemoration, such as the statue of Nelson in Trafalgar Square or the Cenotaph war memorial in Whitehall. Less common are monuments of national contrition. The Holocaust memorial in Berlin is one of the best known.
In the UK, there have been calls for several years for a national monument of atonement for the victims of transatlantic slavery. The case is compelling – our nation was by far the biggest trader in slaves shipped to North America and the Caribbean.
It was directly responsible for the forced and brutal migration of more than three million enslaved Africans across the north Atlantic between the 17th and 19th centuries. Half a million died on the journey.
Yet this reality remains largely hidden from history. Our national story has been much less focused on contrition for our responsibility in the formation of the slave trade than on celebration of its abolition. We cannot continue to gloss over our past.
Hiding slavery behind philanthropy
Redressing this imbalance underpins the welcome initiatives by the National Trust and other cultural custodians to reveal the hidden links between our heritage and this trade. A failure to acknowledge such culpability was the backdrop to the toppling of the Bristol statue of Edward Colston. This monument celebrated his philanthropy but hid his leading role in the slave trading Royal African Company in the 1680s.
When the Black Lives Matter movement toppled the Bristol monument in June last year, it beamed a spotlight on this murky national history. Yet the subsequent debate has wandered off into disputes over the statues of little known philanthropists, who were relatively minor figures in the Royal African Company. Surprisingly, the crucial central figure in England’s early conquest of the global slave trade has escaped unnoticed.
The Royal African Company secured its dominant role in the slave trade under James Stuart, Duke of York, (who went on to have a short-lived reign as King James II), who acted as its governor for 16 years. Under his leadership, the company more than doubled a minority English share to achieve an overwhelming 74% of the market by outcompeting the Dutch and French.
James II commanded the navy, as lord high admiral, to support the company. New York was named in his honour, following the capture of New Amsterdam. His initials DY were branded on slaves to mark his power and property. The scale of the Royal African Company’s trade was subsequently overshadowed by the market entry of many other slave traders in the 18th century. Nevertheless, its heyday under James was a key historic moment when the Crown actively moved to assert the global leadership of England over the slave economy.
James II is commemorated by a notable statue in our most celebrated national public space, Trafalgar Square, on the lawn in front of the National Gallery. Finely sculpted by Grinling Gibbons, and initially erected in 1686 behind the Whitehall Banqueting House, it was lucky to survive the Glorious Revolution. Less fortunate was a sister statue of him in Newcastle that was thrown into the Tyne by a mob in May 1689.
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Fred Steward | Radio Free (2021-04-03T10:00:05+00:00) The UK needs to build a memorial for the people we enslaved. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2021/04/03/the-uk-needs-to-build-a-memorial-for-the-people-we-enslaved/
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