page_title: Edward Colston
section_title: City-centre memorial statue
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Colston / Memorials / City-centre memorial statue
caption_attribution_description: Statue of Edward Colston, The Centre, Bristol English: Erected in 1895, on 7 June 2020 the statue was defaced, toppled and thrown into Bristol harbour during the George Floyd protests.
context_page_description: Edward Colston was an English merchant, philanthropist and Tory Member of Parliament who was involved in the Atlantic slave trade.
  Colston followed his father in the family business becoming a sea merchant, initially trading in wine, fruits and textiles, mainly in Spain, Portugal and other European ports. By 1680, he became involved in the slave trade as a member of the Royal African Company, which held a monopoly on the English trade in African slaves. He was deputy governor of the company in 1689–90.
  Colston's name was widely commemorated in Bristol landmarks, and a statue of him was erected in 1895. With growing awareness in the late 20th century of his involvement in Britain's slave trade, there were protests and petitions for name changes, culminating in June 2020, when the statue was toppled and pushed into Bristol Harbour during protests in support of Black Lives Matter.
context_section_description: In 1895, 174 years after Colston's death, a statue designed by John Cassidy was erected in the centre of Bristol, to commemorate Colston's philanthropy. It stood for 125 years, until 7 June 2020, when the statue was toppled and pushed into Bristol Harbour by demonstrators during the George Floyd protests. The statue was retrieved from the harbour four days later by Bristol City Council and taken to a secure location.  It will later become a museum exhibit.
  In 2018, text for a new plaque for the statue was proposed  intended to better inform the public about Colston's history. Conservative councillor Richard Eddy and the Society of Merchant Venturers, which Colston had belonged to, objected to the wording, and were successful in – among other things – removing mention of Colston's role as a Tory MP and the selective nature of his philanthropy, and disputed the number and ages of the children that died on his ships. The new wording was vetoed by the Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, who saw the Society as having had too much say in the process, instructing more parts of the community to be involved in producing the plaque. After the statue was toppled, the Merchant Venturers said that it had been "inappropriate" for them to have become involved in the rewording of the plaque in 2018, and that the removal of the statue was "right for Bristol".
caption: Statue of Edward Colston by John Cassidy, formerly in The Centre, Bristol, erected in 1895, toppled in 2020
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