Bristol, perhaps more than any other city in the UK, has proactively sought to reconcile its dark past and present rather than ignoring it. "Erected by citizens of Bristol as a memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city, AD 1895", said a dark plaque decorating an empty plinth in the centre of Bristol, the largest city in south-west England. That "most virtuous and wise son" was Edward Colston, a 17th-Century merchant who oversaw the enslavement of 84,000 Africans, 19,000 of whom are thought to have died en route to the Americas.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230709-the-english-city-facing-up-to-its-troubled-past

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