All language subtitles for Civilisations.Stories.S01E01.The.Remains.of.Slavery.WEB.h264-WEBTUBE_track3_eng

Our country is proud of its history
and heritage.

But, for nearly 250 years,

Britain profited and boomed on the
back of a trade in human beings.

The slave trade.

In this programme,

I track down architecture and
objects that tell the story of this

challenging period in our history.

Each one found in the west of
England,

the British epicentre of this
industry.

I ask the question,

should these objects be shown today
as valid works of art

and architectural heritage,

or should they be hidden from view
as shameful artefacts

of an era we best forget?

My name is Miles Chambers, and I'm
Bristol's Poet Laureate.

I'm on a journey of discovery
through objects and architecture,

and I'm going to write a poem along
the way, reacting to what I find.

Naturally, words are
important to me.

And if you, like me,
live in Bristol,

it's hard to escape a word you see
around you everywhere.

Colston.

Born in 1636, Edward Colston helped
to create a golden age for Bristol.

A highly religious Merchant
Venturer and philanthropist,

he brought huge amounts
of wealth to the city.

Here, on Narrow Quay, his ships were
stuffed full of cargo,

ready to set sail on trading voyages
lasting many months at a time.

The Bristol merchants were so
successful that during the 1730s

these docks overtook London
and became the busiest in Britain.

Now covered over with roads and
walkways, Colston's statue

stands in the very place where his
ships once sailed for West Africa.

Edward Colston.

It says here, "Erected by the
citizens of Bristol as a memorial

"of one of the most virtuous
and wise sons of the city."

Interesting.

Interesting.

While Colston undoubtedly
gave alms to the poor,

virtually all his money was made
from the transatlantic slave trade.

This was part of the European-wide
industry that traded

around 10 million human beings,
all treated as cargo and sold

as slaves in the Americas,
in the West Indies.

I am a product of that.

I have no real idea where my family
came from in Africa.

My mother said she's Zulu
and my father said Masai.

I doubt that.

But what I do know is my family
ended up being taken to

Jamaica and sold as slaves to work
on the sugar plantations.

The trade in slaves formed
a triangle from England to

West Africa, and then to
the West Indies and back.

While Bristol was at its apex,

many parts of the West Country made
huge profits from the business.

Some eight miles down the River Avon
is the village of Saltford.

Here, they manufactured the main
currency of the slave trade - brass.

This is the last remaining mill
from the time.

I've come to meet the curator...

..Tony Coverdale.

This is what you've come to see.
Ah, right.

Everything in here would have
actually been produced during

the slave trade?That's right. This
mill started operation in 1723.

All right.And all these items
were made here,

and these were made specifically to
feature into that first leg of

the slave trade.
So, let me show you this -

this is what's called a Guinea
kettle, and this is typical of what

was made here.A Guinea kettle?

A Guinea kettle.Now, I'm going to
guess why it's called

a Guinea kettle - because it's going
to Guinea?Exactly.

And I'm holding it, and it's
surprisingly very light.

It is, that's right. Brass is an
alloy of copper and zinc.

It's very thin.
But that gives two things.

One is, by being so thin, that's
part of the things that they wanted

in Africa.Right.But also you can
see there are all these dimples,

which are the marks of the hammer,
and that's where the hammer

struck the brass.Which was driven
by the mill here?

Which was driven by the water power
in the mill here.

They wanted to see that battery
wear,

because that told you it was good
quality brass.

Right, OK.If it was poor brass,
the pan would have cracked.

In West Africa, the English
merchants traded the brass items

with black African slave traders.

This was actually used as currency.

It was used as currency, yes.

For a human being?

Yes.A black African?

Yes. Bearing in mind
that we're trading,

and what they wanted were things
like pans like this.

There also were things called
manillas which were used as coins.

These were stylised bracelets.

And I was told that in Guinea,
if they saw a piece of brass

or a gold coin, they would take
the brass and leave the gold coin.

Is that true?Exactly.

It's known as the red gold
of Africa.

I hate to ask this,
but I need to ask this.

How many of these would have been
used to purchase a human?

We've got an inventory of a cargo
going out to Africa, dated 1785,

and on that about 20 of those pans
would buy a person.

Today's figures - that means we were
buying a man for about £800,

selling him for about £3,600.

OK. So, it's just cold,
hard business.

"This is my stock, this is how much
I'm going to sell it for..."

Exactly."..this is my profit."
That's right.And that's it.

But this is people.

Wow.

It's unbelievable to think that I've
been discussing the value of

a person in pots, yet this
beautifully hand-beaten

Guinea kettle was indeed a currency
of the slave trade.

Slavery has existed for thousands of
years, probably started in Africa,

and every empire that has ever
existed has enslaved people.

Roman, Greek, Babylonian,
Egyptian, Nubian.

But what made this slave trade
different was the distinction

between race. It was about colour -
you were black and African, you were

a slave, you were white and
Western, you were the master -

and the devastation which happened
because of that.

Once the brass pots from the mills
and other items were traded,

the ships were filled with their
human cargo...

..then transported across the
Atlantic to the West Indies,

on a voyage that would take weeks.

Conditions were horrific.

Men, women and children packed in
like cattle.

Many wouldn't survive the trip.

Bristol boomed and burgeoned
on the back of the slave trade.

But it was in Bath,
some 14 miles away,

that many of the profits were
invested and enjoyed.

It's no coincidence that this
beautiful Georgian city was built,

and had its heyday, during
the height of the slave trade.

One of Bath's most famous residents
was sugar plantation owner

William Beckford, who lived
at this magnificent house

on Lansdown Crescent.

A colourful character,

the talk of the chattering
middle-class residents of Bath,

he had a number of then-illegal
gay affairs.

He was obsessed
with building towers.

In 1826, he built what's now called
Beckford's Tower.

It once housed part of one of
the greatest collections of books,

furniture and art
in Georgian England.

The artefacts are mostly gone.

It's this neoclassical folly
I've come to see.

Dr Amy Frost, a senior curator from
the Bath Preservation Trust,

knows more about Beckford's
remarkable structure than anyone.

Oh, my goodness, there's a lot of
steps! How far up does it go?

Well, Beckford wanted to get
the best view he could,

and the best way to do that
was from a tower.

So, he built it as tall as he could.

Sure.So, this is 120 foot high.

120 foot.Which means we have
154 stairs to go up.

154 stairs!

Oh! I don't need to go
to the gym today.

The tower was designed
by Henry Edmund Goodridge,

an architect who lived
and worked in Bath.

Its cantilever staircase is a tour
de force, perfectly symmetrical,

a work of art in itself.

How often did Beckford come up here?

So, he would come up every day.

Every day?
He built it when he was 66,

he would ride his horse up from his
house a mile down the road...

Right...and he would come up here
and he would read,

look at his objects, and then he
would walk back down his garden

just in time for breakfast.

But the main thing was that he could
come up and look at this incredible

view, which you can now see.

And it is absolutely incredible,
isn't it?

From this tiny room,
Beckford gazed across this land,

sitting in splendid isolation,
the lord of all he surveyed.

The Beckford that built this tower,
he wasn't the first Beckford,

was he?No, he's the fourth
generation of this sort of

huge Beckford dynasty.

The first Beckford went to Jamaica
in 1661, and that's right

at the beginning of when the British
have taken on Jamaica.

So, our Beckford's father's period,
they had 13 sugar plantations.13?

Which then really made them the
biggest landowners in the whole of

the West Indies.So, sugar,
it's a luxury, or it was then?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's like
a real luxury commodity.

Incredibly expensive to buy,

so, only the very best people could
serve things made with sugar in it.

And, of course, they're producing
sugar with free labour,

with slave labour, so...
They don't have to pay wages.

Yeah, exactly.
So, it's almost pure profit.

And it's an obscene amount of money,
I mean, they are generating.

And to put that in today's money...

So, what are we talking about,
billions?Just billions.

Billions, right.And it is the kind
of wealth and extravagance of

a Russian oligarch today, how they
live and what they spend it on.

And, at the height, the Beckford
family - if you add, kind of,

all the uncles and brothers and
cousins and nieces and everyone

together - I mean, the only fortune
really that can rival the Beckford

family is the royal family,
is the Crown.Right.

So, they're second only to the
royal family?

An extraordinary amount of money.
That's incredible.

And did he ever go to Jamaica?

Did he ever go there and see...?No.
No, he never went.

He was groomed to be the gentleman,

and Beckford is a real absentee
plantation owner.

I suppose that was his
downfall, then?

Yeah. He never had that kind of
control that his father had.

So, they start swindling him,

and the abolitionist movement
starts to have

an impact, and, during all that
time, Beckford is just spending.

He's building buildings,
buying objects.

Eventually, by 1822,
he's run out of money.

Really? That vast wealth?!

Yeah. The Beckfords were really
the most powerful family on Jamaica,

and, certainly at their peak, they
were the biggest plantation owners.

And that's about 3,000 slaves.

Mm. You know,

I'm sitting here listening to you
and that is quite concerning,

because my family are from Jamaica,
my ancestors.

And, if I go back generations,

I'm thinking it's pretty probable
that some of them would have been

slaves on one of his plantations.

It's highly likely and, you know,
for you, sitting here

in this building, I can't imagine
what that feels like.

Yeah.

It's...

Yeah, disconcerting, a little.

We had to work to give him all this.

Mm.

I'm now left wondering if the things
that I've seen,

these harsh reminders
of the slave trade,

should be kept on public display.

Just eight miles north of Bath
is Dyrham Park,

a National Trust estate once owned
by William Blathwayt,

the colonial administrator

who oversaw all aspects
of the slave trade.

Like William Beckford,

Blathwayt filled his opulent mansion
with valuable art and collectables.

I've been told I might find
two particular items from

this collection quite shocking.

National Trust volunteer
David is going to show me.

Well, Miles, here are the Dyrham
blackamoors.

Carved from wood, blackamoors -
or black Muslims -

originated in Venice before becoming
fashionable in Britain.

I...I think they're very...

..beautiful sculptures, in the sense
that the costume they're wearing,

the way they're made, the colours.

But what offends me the most
is the position of servitude,

the chains around the feet,

the implication of the chain
around the neck.

Exactly how old are these?

They were made in London in 1670.

These artefacts were used,
really, by the rich and affluent,

as holders of potpourri,
sweetmeats and scent.

Right.And they would have been
placed at the doors where

a party was being held,
to show off their wealth.

I need to ask you, do you think
these blackamoors

should be on display?

I do think that these blackamoors
should be on display.Why?

They represent a mark,
an insignia of slavery,

and an acceptance of slavery,
in the context of their time.

They actually represent an ethos
which embraced slavery

as a normal part of life.

And, despite the disturbing feelings
that one has when one looks at them,

these feelings have got to be faced.

I think the National Trust are to be
applauded for displaying these

fulsomely, without fear,
in Dyrham Park,

before the many thousands of people
that pass through this building

every year. It has to leave
an impression on them.

Yeah.

The blackamoors have certainly
left an impression on me.

I can understand why people,
both black and white,

would want them swept under
the carpet.

Yet, I can also see why these
historical artefacts are important

reminders of the time.

While people liked to collect
so-called Negro artwork,

the wealthy British also liked to
own black servants,

slaves shipped over from
the plantations to Britain.

At St Mary's Church in Henbury, just
outside of Bristol is a slave grave

of a young servant called Scipio.

This ornately decorated tombstone
is unique,

showing he was held in high regard
by his master.

Today, I'm meeting Bristol historian
and good friend Dr Edson Burton.

Well, not much is known about the
life of Scipio Africanus...

Right...prior to, you know,

his death and his early life
in the Caribbean.

But we know that, of course, he was
the servant to the Earl of Suffolk.

So, aristocratic families would
often take a slave with them,

from the Caribbean to Britain.

And that was partly showing off
your wealth.

So if you're involved with sugar and
you were signalling that you were a

sugar magnate - imagine the sort of
major dot-com industry of the time -

you'd have a black slave.Right.

And Scipio Africanus -
it's Latin taxonomy, isn't it?

What often is the case is that
people gave their enslaved Africans

these ornate, grand Latinate names.

But imagine that whatever his
original name was,

that had been removed and erased,

and, instead, he was named
like flora and fauna.

It's very difficult to get into
the mind-set of the 18th century,

and what you have is the beginnings
of racialising people

as being different.Right.

Right. I want us to come round here.
I know you've seen it before, but...

..we've got his footstone.

These words concern me.

"I was born a Pagan and a slave,

"now sweetly sleep
a Christian in my grave.

"What tho' my hue was dark,

"my saviour's sight shall change
this darkness into radiant light."

The complexity here is that you've
got a play on colour and difference

that is used by people who thought
of Africans as inferior.

Blackness is seen as problematic.

People, on the one hand,
clearly seemed to adore him,

and, at the same time, saw him
as a different kind of human.

What's captured here is a sense that
Scipio needs to become another

person, he needs to become white in
order to enter into humanity.

Scipio's grave illustrates to me
that the concept of racism as we

know it today was born, and really
created, from the slave trade.

I grew up in Wiltshire.

I would say every day I was reminded
of the colour of my skin.

And I actually believed that there
were certain jobs which blacks did,

and certain jobs which whites did.

There were certain limitations
to my blackness.

And I remember my first trip
to Jamaica - I was 19.

I was just blown away.
Everyone was black.

That illustrated, yes, I can be
a lawyer, I can be a doctor.

I could be a poet, or even
the first black Poet Laureate.

It was many years after Scipio's
death that people started to

campaign for the abolition
of slavery.

The movement created an iconic
artefact to build social awareness

for their cause.

I've come to see one of these
precious pieces kept at

the M Shed in Bristol.

Sue Giles is senior curator for the
Bristol museums.

Lovely to see you. So, what's this?

This is what's called a slavery
medallion, or a slavery plaque.

Fantastic.And, 1780s, the abolition
movement was finally gathering pace,

and the Society For The Abolition Of
The Slave Trade was established.

And, 1787, this was produced as

the sort of slogan
and the logo of the society.

Can I hold it?You can.
You'll have to put a glove on.

Oh, right. I hope this is big enough
because I've got big hands.

Right.Perfect.

OK. So there you are.

Ah.

So what's it made from?

It's made of what's called
jasperware.

Wedgwood had been
experimenting for years,

trying to copy Chinese porcelain,

and, so, jasperware was his sort of
version of porcelain.

So, Josiah Wedgwood, as in Wedgwood
the famous pottery designer?

Yeah. He was a strong supporter of
the abolition movement and he helped

to publicise it by making these
pieces, fired in the kilns, whenever

there was a gap to fit them in
amongst all the other stuff,

and then they were distributed,
I think for free.

So, what would you have done
with it?

Well, this one obviously
has been made into a picture.

Oh, right. So it's not like a
medallion that you'd wear, you know,

a bit like Mr T?
No, not quite that flash.

OK.

But other people might make them
into a brooch or a hatpin.

You could also have it inlaid into
something like a little snuffbox,

so, when you offer your friend
some snuff,

they can see that you're a supporter
and you start the conversation.

What concerns me is you see an image
of a kneeling black man.Yeah.

And appealing to the white
middle-class powers that be

to free him.It is a very
passive image, but also

it's what society needed
to appeal to people in Britain.

So, this would've been like the
first form of a fashion accessory

that supported a cause?Yeah.

I think the Society For
The Abolition Of The Slave Trade was

the first major public campaign,

and the idea that you get everyone
involved by wearing something

that shows what they believe in.

In 1807, the act to abolish the
slave trade was finally passed in

Parliament, stopping the legal
transportation of slaves.

But slave ownership was allowed
to continue in the West Indies

until 1834. Even then the plantation
owners received compensation

for the loss of their slave labour.

Nathaniel Wells, who lived here
on Park Street in Bath,

owned plantations in St Kitts,
but, extraordinarily,

he was the son of a black slave.

Dr Olivette Otele from Bath Spa
University has brought me here.

Hello...And the Gardner family have
given us privileged access

to their home.

What can you tell me
about his earlier life?

Well, his mother was an enslaved
woman, and his father was a Welshman

who was born in Cardiff and who had
three plantations in St Kitts.

Three?Yes, in the West Indies.

So, Nathaniel ended up being
one of his father's favourites.

He talks about his "natural and
dear son Nathaniel, who was born,

"whose mother was called Juggy."

And the relationship between
the mum and the father is quite

a contentious one because most
women in plantations were raped.

So, it wasn't really a relationship.
It was a subjugated relationship.

But Nathaniel grew up
as a free young child because...

He was free?Well, actually,

his father freed him
when he was four years old.

So, when the father died, Nathaniel
inherited the three plantations,

plus a huge amount of money.

£120,000, which in today's money
is around £6 million.

£6 million?

Yes, and he was only 15.

So, Olivette, when the plantation
owners had to free their slaves

because of the abolition of slavery,
am I right in thinking that

they got compensation?Yes, they
did, and in today's money it's

something like 2 billion because
they actually lobbied Parliament

and claimed that they were losing
their property and their livelihood.

That's an incredible pay-out.

Yes, it is.And, so, am I right in
assuming that Nathaniel Wells

would've received compensation?Yes.

Nathaniel received £1,400
and nine shillings,

which in today's money
is roughly £62,000.

How do you think it was possible...

..that he could own slaves?

Well, he probably didn't see
himself as a black person.

He was raised as a gentleman.

He probably identified with
the white elite because, indeed,

he was highly educated and he had
a lot of money, which means

that he completely accepted the kind
of slave society he lived in

and he was born in.So, what you're
saying is that, in that sense,

it wasn't about race - it was about
class, it was about prestige,

it was about power, about position.
And he was born and groomed into

that from day one?He was absolutely
groomed into that, but we still

have to remember that this was
a society also based on race,

because let's remember that enslaved
Africans were black.

The rape of black female slaves
was normal on the plantations.

And, like so many others
from the West Indies,

I know I have white genes
in my bloodline.

In Bristol, it's interesting to see
how little public recognition

there is for the slaves who built
the wealth of the West Country.

There is only one slave who's been
given public recognition.

His name is Pero Jones.

A slave from the West Indies
who became a servant here,

in the Georgian House.

In 1999, this bridge was built
in the heart of the city.

It's called Pero's Bridge.

This is a really apt place
to stop and think.

To think about the journey
I've been on, to think about what

I've seen that has made the slave
trade more vivid and more real.

The emotions I've felt
that made it more raw.

Should these objects be shown?

Yes. It's a part of our history,
but, more importantly...

..it's a part of our future...

..as a constant reminder,
lest this should ever happen again.

So, we've completed the triangle,
back to the place where

Colston's ships were unloaded of
their bittersweet cargo,

ready to set sail again
for West Africa.

His name is still
around me everywhere,

but maybe, when the Colston Hall
is renamed in 2020,

Bristol will grasp the opportunity
to create a lasting tribute to those

who suffered for the slave trade.

What shall we do with these
West Country artefacts

Aspects of a shameful history

Pummelled brass indentations
on callous bases

Bartered for innocent souls

Wrists, weighted with currency made
from unsympathetic bolts

An eclectic tower boasted
a view of sweet opulence

As far as the eye can see

Offensive, submissive figurines

Why are you called Moor?

A bright, white grave for a dark
black boy made pure

Medallions of abolition
begging for liberty

A slave empire run from a house in
Bath given to an unusual viceroy

A fortune given to a black slave
master when he was just a boy

We should show them,
but don't celebrate them

A reminder of what we did
in the past

Of how we treated each other in
pursuit of greedy wealth

Lest we forget

Lest history repeat itself.