Bristol: Slave Trade, White Merchants and Black Population

The aim of this dissertation is to anayse the past of the city of Bristol, located in the South West of England, which was one of the most important British slave ports in the eighteenth century. The involvement of the city in the slave trade generated an incredible wealth and richness. The people who mostly benefited from the trade were the merchants who traded with Africa and the West Indies in the so-called Transatlantic Slave Trade. In this dissertation not only will the rich white people directly or indirectly involved in the trade be examined, such as Edward Colston and John Pinney, two of the most influential merchants in Bristol, but also the black Africans who were brought to Britain and became part of its society, not without sufferings and discrimination. One example is represented by the Caribbean slave Pero, now a symbol of all the African men, women and children enslaved and expoited in the slave trade. A particular importance will be given to artistic representations of blacks, examining how Africans were perceived in British society. This dissertation attempts not only to remember the agony of slaves in contrast with the richness of white merchants and traders, but also to make a comparison between the past and the present, as still nowadays there are several signs of Bristol's dark past, which will be analysed in an attempt to understand whether Bristolians have come to terms with the cruel trade that made the city so beautiful and prosperous.