Slavery and Bristol

"As lockdown began in March 2020 in the UK, I finally sat down on the sofa to read a book which had long been on my nonfiction reading list: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano . I love reading primary sources (many of which are available as free ebooks ) and here was a book written in the 18th century by a man who had been kidnapped from Africa and sold into slavery. I was completely hooked. I’m a slightly obsessive reader and from there I embarked on a number of slave narratives, though I finally stopped when, late one night, sitting in bed and about to start a second Frederick Douglass autobiography, my husband suggested one was probably enough. Of the books published in 2020 about the history of slavery, two caught my attention. One was Slavery and Bristol , which was sent to me by the New Room, a Methodist charity. As the title suggests, this book is about slavery and Bristol and the author is relentless in outlining all the connections between the two. “The slave trade was called the Guinea trade. That is commemorated in one of Bristol’s streets being called Guinea Street.” We learn that between 1730 and 1746 Bristol merchants were responsible for organising 40% of all British voyages to Africa, and overall was responsible for trading around half a million people. Although this was very much a collective effort, the author goes through which individuals should be particularly held to account, and which not so much, investigating whether it matters if you’re a slave trader, or just using slavery to get rich in some other way. He starts with a quick survey of the pre-18th century period and takes it to up to 2020 and the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston. The book has great illustrations and pull-out quotes. I’ve only been to Bristol twice and have no connection with the city per se , but it’s that combination of the sweep of history, with a very precise evaluation of one specific locality’s connection to that history, which makes the book so compelling. The other book, shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction, is Black Spartacus , a biography of Toussaint Louverture. It’s by Oxford historian Sudhir Hazareesingh and is about the first successful revolution by slaves against an imperial power (France) in what is now Haiti."