Paul Bristow wrote this letter to the Guardian, in response to Tristram Hunt's Comment article Built with blood money
Britain needs to face up to slavery past
· Bristol may have overtaken London in the early 1700s as the country's prime slave port, but London never left the trade (the South Sea company was set up to trade slaves), and Bristol was later superseded in its dominance by Liverpool - another city bidding for capital of culture status and one that Dr Hunt omits from his article.
Coming to terms with slavery and building a successful multicultural society is not just a challenge for Bristol, but for the whole of Britain. Those who seek to duck the issue by implying that it is just an issue for Bristolians make this task harder.
Paul Bristow, London
Britain needs to face up to slavery past (Guardian, 26 Feb 2003)
Original Guardian Comment by Tristram Hunt:
Built with blood money
The city of Bristol is currently competing to be Britain's nominee as the 2008 European capital of culture. With an impressive campaign that has already secured it a place on the shortlist, Bristol has stressed its world-famous wildlife film-making, contemporary arts community, Oscar-winning animation industry and vibrant theatre scene. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the bid has not so far stressed the city's dirty history of slavery. (Guardian, 25 Feb 2003)
Other readers' letters:
Further thoughts on coming to terms with slavery
· To make this horrendous past fully meaningful, society needs to see the representation of the impact of slavery and exploitation not only in terms of past suffering, but also in terms of what happened to the descendants of slaves, and what the descendants of the slavers did with the generated wealth. If Britain can be enabled to see how much the contemporary economy has its basis in the proceeds of slavery and the exploitation of particular social groups, it may not be so grudging in its social policy to the disadvantaged as a whole.
The acknowledgement of the consequences of the phenomenon of seeing particular social groups as less then human will pave the way for finally taking responsibility for them. Let the presentation of history allow history to fulfil its most valuable role - to inform action today.
Judy Ling Wong, Black Environment Network
ukoffice@ben-network.org.uk
(Guardian, 3 Mar 2003)
3 Mar 2003