New evidence unearthed into Bristol’s early involvement in slave trade

Bristol’s involvement in the Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Africans may have started 30 years before it was previously recorded, a University of Bristol historian has found.

Revealing an unknown chapter into the city’s economy, Dr Richard Stone has discovered that Thomas Colston became enmeshed in the trade decades before his relative, Edward Colston.

Stone found that ships Endeavour, of which Thomas was a principal investor, and Mary Fortune had glass beads and Indian cloth among their cargoes – goods only ever seen on slave triangular trafficking voyages.

This was some 35 years before the date usually given for the city’s entry into the slave trade.

“Without doubt, we have to push the story of Bristol’s involvement in this horrific business right back to the earliest days of English involvement and name the Colstons as among its pioneers,” said Stone.

A bronze statue of Edward Colston stood on Colston Avenue since 1895 as a memorial to his philanthropic works until is was toppled in June 2020 – photo: Martin Booth

Stone, whose work specialises in the history and legacy of the Atlantic slave economy, made the breakthrough when transcribing a Bristol customs account from 1662 which was misfiled at the National Archives.

The historian noticed Endeavour and Mary Fortune’s destination was labelled as west coast African island, Sao Tome.

“This immediately caught my attention,” Stone said. “I don’t normally see ships heading for a destination like that off the coast of Africa, and they also had some odd commodities on board.”

Stone added: “The presence of glass beads and Indian cloth amongst their cargoes, which are only ever seen on slave trafficking voyages, combined with the involvement of Thomas Colston left me convinced that I had found Bristol’s first recorded entry into the transatlantic traffic in enslaved Africans.”

‘Thomas Colston and Bristol’s pre-1698 trafficking of enslaved Africans’ https://t.co/IcR7kZbsMT Very much looking forward to telling the story of the notorious Edward Colston’s younger brother in this free online talk for the Regional History Center!

— Richard Stone (@Dr_RGStone) May 15, 2023

Further investigation uncovered dozens more voyages like the Endeavour and Mary Fortune in the three decades before Bristol officially entered the African trade.

Stone estimates that Bristol sent out an average of two slave trafficking voyages a year between 1662 and 1698.

“This would equate to more than 10,000 people taken from their lives in Africa to ones of enslavement in the Caribbean – equivalent to half of the population of Bristol at that time,” Stone said.

He called the discovery “a window onto the story of thousands of lives lost”.

Stone will be sharing more about his findings and the life of Thomas Colston in an online talk hosted by Bristol Museums on Thursday, 6.30pm-8pm.

For more information and to book tickets, visit www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/m-shed/whats-on/regional-history-talk-thomas-colston-and-bristols-pre-1698-trafficking-of-enslaved-africans

Main image: Bristol Museums

Read next:

• School founded by Edward Colston announced new name
• Road names changed to pay homage to bus boycott and other ‘pioneers of colour’
• The Colston statue still standing in Bristol

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