Edward Colston has long been a controversial figure in Bristol's history. He was a 17th Century Bristol merchant and Member of Parliament. He became a wealthy man and was heavily involved in the slave trade. He was also a philanthropist and bequeathed much of his wealth to the city.
Bristol, London and Liverpool were the major British players in the so-called Triangular Trade that began modestly in the 15th Century and was at its height from the mid 18th to the mid 19th centuries prior to abolition. Much of these cities' wealth accrues directly or indirectly from the slave trade.
Slave ships sailed from England to West Africa to barter copper, trinkets and guns/ammunition with the African kings and other leaders whose economy depended heavily on the slave trade. The African leaders would sell their own people or captives from other kingdoms in exchange for the wares brought out from England. The slave ships then set out for the Caribbean or American colonies packed with slaves who were transported in unimaginable squalor. Many failed to survive the voyages. The ships would offload their human cargo in the New World and return to England with such things as molasses, rum, sugar, tobacco and hemp, bought from the proceeds of selling the slaves.
Colston's name is particularly toxic amongst many people in in Bristol and indeed further afield, not least because of the many references to him in the city: streets, buildings and schools are named after him. It has to be said that there is also a large number of people who believe that Colston is part of the city's history, an enigma to us today because he was both a slave trader and philanthropist, but that's how society was in his day and there are many people who believe that he should be recognised for what he was - good and evil.
Bristol is slowly coming to terms with its slave trade history. The main concert Hall, the Colston hall, is to be renamed and there is a footbridge across part of the Floating Harbour called Pero's Bridge, that commemorates Pero an 18th Century slave who was a servant in the city to a Bristol merchant for many years.
There are those though who believe that the city has not done anywhere near enough to acknowledge its slave trade history. The Bristol band Massive Attack has refused to play at the Colston Hall for many years There are calls from some quarters to rename the iconic Neo Gothic Wills Memorial Building, the magnificent university tower at the top of the steep Park Steet shopping area in the city's West End. It was completed in 1925 following a commission from the Bristol WD & HO Wills tobacco family that flourished through the tobacco they obtained from such places as Virginia that was worked by slaves. No doubt following the defacement of Churchill's statue in London at the weekend there will be further calls to associate Bristol University's past with racism - Churchill was the university's chancellor from 1929 until his death in 1965.
My view is that yesterday's action was an example of mob rule. Once that replaces the democratic process where does society go? The statue would have been removed in due course in the same way that the Colston Hall is to be renamed. To arrive at a situation where the police stand by and do nothing about an act of wanton criminal damage taking place in front of them will encourage other elements whose cause does not encompass a similar moral high ground to do the same.