The Colston Statue Museum Exhibit

(Image courtesy of Elle Summers)

19th August 2021

By Elle Summers

Last summer, protestors swarmed into the streets of Bristol, providing an outlet for voices within the Black Lives Matter Movement to be heard. News sites across the country reported continuously on the actions of demonstrators, showing a clear sense of alarm when protestors pulled down the Edward Colston statue from the city centre on the 7th of June 2020 and graffitied it. The statue was eventually thrown into the harbour. Four days later it was retrieved for the safety of vessels navigating the area. But what has happened to it now?

The Mshed museum, located alongside Bristol Harbour is currently the temporary home of the Colston statue. You can view it and its accompanying exhibit for free, alongside a detailed account of the statue’s history. The account aims to state neutrally both the arguments for and against the statue’s presence within Bristol’s streets. The exhibit is advertised as a ‘temporary display’ in an effort to provide ‘the start of a conversation’.

So, who was Edward Colston? Colston was born in 1636 and lived until his death in 1721. Colston’s family had long standing ties with the city of Bristol, despite Colston himself moving to London at a very young age. From 1680, Colston became a high official in the London-based Royal African Company. Through this role, Colston played an active part in the trading of 84,000 enslaved African people, including 12,000 children. Out of those 84,000 people, an estimated 19,000 died on their way across the Atlantic. In later life, Colston became a Bristol MP, a position he used to campaign to keep slave trade legal. When Colston passed, he left around £71,000 to charity (roughly £16 million today). During his lifetime, Colston had also given money to schools, alms houses, hospitals and Anglican churches.

170 years after Colston’s death, the city of Bristol reinvented him as a patriarchal role model and a symbol of charity. His statue was proposed to stand as a mark of civic pride. Despite Colston’s involvement with the slave trade being well-known at the time in some circles, it was majorly downplayed, the emphasis being put on his philanthropy instead.

The current exhibit of Colston’s statue provides an honest account of Colston’s history, acknowledging his charity work, yet highlighting his role in the slave trade. The statue is placed in the middle of the exhibit, laying down, with the graffiti added to it last year still intact. Alongside this stands a timeline of information, a slideshow of people’s diverse opinions about the pulling down of the statue and protestors signs from the 7th of June 2020. Mshed has made abundantly clear throughout the exhibit how important hearing everyone’s voice is, mirrored through the use of the slideshow that provides a backdrop to the statue.

Alongside the removal of the Colston statue, other locations in Bristol have highlighted their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement by changing their names in order to disassociate from the colonial past. For instance, the Colston Arms has temporarily renamed itself Ye Olde Pubby McDrunkface with the name displayed on a banner at the entrance of the pub.

This exhibit calls for voices to be heard, so how can you get involved? Well, if you happen to find yourself in the West Country, the current exhibit is free to see, you simply need to book a time slot for Covid restriction reasons. Alternatively, you can follow the link here to the MShed’s website which provides more information on the statue and Colston’s history. There is also talk of a virtual 3D display coming soon. At the bottom of the website you can find a link to a survey, allowing you to have your say regarding what happens next to both the statue and the statue’s plinth that is still present in Colston Avenue.