Roots of Bristol (website link)

The Roots of Bristol

A Photographic Exploration By Aaron Chown

The City of Bristol in the west of England is situated on the River Avon and the River Frome. The Avon flows into the River Severn and from there into the Bristol Channel before joining the North Atlantic Ocean. Bristol has a long trading history due to its position on the River Avon. Bristol’s merchants were keen, and always looking for new areas of trade. When the opportunity came to join the developing trade to Africa and the Americas, they seized the chance.

Slavery is an economic system, which relies on the free labour of enslaved people. It denies those people their freedom and what we today call their ‘human rights’. This may be for a fixed period of time, or as in the case of the transatlantic slave trade, for life. Those being sold into slavery would have been seen as ‘outsiders’ from the seller’s own community. Treating outsiders in such a way seemed acceptable.

From the 1550s onwards, there had been occasional protests about the enslavement of human beings and the trade in slaves. It was not however until the mid-18th century that opposition to the slave trade became a major issue. Many thought that Britain would suffer economically if plantations were to be deprived of the slaves. The Abolition campaign continued, and eventually the trade in slaves was stopped in 1807.

There were some 2,000 sailors who lived in Bristol by the 1750s. Only the most desperate worked on slave ships due to the sickness and threat of slave rebellion. Thomas Clarkson who campaigned against the slave trade came to Bristol in 1787 to understand the sailors who took part..

Occasionally sailors found themselves in the position of slaves. In the early 1700s an English ship was captured off the coast of North Africa by pirates from Morocco.

John Pinney lived in 1742-1818 and earned his fortune from his sugar plantations in the Caribbean with his friend James Tobin. Together they owned ships and lent money to plantation owners, However the plantations and slaves of those who couldn't pay their debts were then taken over. On his death Pinney left ÂŁ340,000, a huge fortune of the time equivilant of 26 milllion now.

“For sale to any gentlemen or lady who wants a negro boy a lad of 14 years recently landed.�

The Bristol Intelligencer 12th of January 1754

It was often in the pubs and coffee houses themselves that goods were sold in an informal surroundings and were merchants would gather to see in the local newspaper what goods were for sale goods often included people.

Cranfield Becher, Merchant Venturer - The slave ship 'Jason Gally' was loaded with nearly ÂŁ3,000 worth of goods such as guns, weapons and brandy to buy as many negroes as possible on a trip to Angola.

Orchard Lane - James McTaggart sometime captain of the slave ship Africa Built a house in this elegant street which dates from 1770, the West Indian merchant mark Davies also has offices here. Number 10 Orchard Lane stands on the site of the chapel built by the French Protestant refugees.

Pero Jones at the age of 12 was bought by John Pinney, to work on his Mountravers plantation in Nevis. In 1784 he accompanied the Pinney family in their move from Nevis to Bristol. Pero was personal servant to John Pinney and served for 32 years.The bridge was named in commemoration of his life and death in Bristol.

Ashton Court Estate - While construction of the estate started in 1633 it has been owned by the smyth family ever since. The deer are native to central and Eastern Asia. Bristols foreign trade stretched far and wide accross the world during the 1700’s due to the slave trade monietry wealth.

The voyage to Bristol usually took six to eight weeks, but bad weather could increase this to 13 weeks or more.

The captain and crew all received a wage. But the higher ranking members such as the captain, the ship’s surgeon and the first mate, would also be given a ‘a privilege negroe’ . This was a a slave bought in Africa, which they could sell for their own profit.

The British sugar colony of Demerara in Guyana originating 1823 was the scene of a bloody reporting involving almost all of the islands 12,000 slaves. Many sailors were recruited from the rough drinking taverns on Marsh Street, in Bristol.

The average losses were between 10 and 20%, through sickness, suicide and even murder at the hands of the slave crew and captains. 10% means over 1,000,000 Africans died on board the ships, 20% represents over 2,000,000 deaths.

The British government advertised for black workers from the Caribbean and other parts of the Commonwealth to fill job vacancies in the public services. Often they planned to work in Britain for a few years and then go ‘home’. But often they stayed instead, and settled for life. In the 1940s black men in the city joined the British army and air force to fight for the ‘motherland’ in the Second World War.

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Book Images & Design by Š Aaron Chown. www.aaronchown.co.uk