Bristol Friends publish slavery research
Friends have published details of how Quakers in Bristol were complicit in the transatlantic slave trade
Bristol Area Meeting (AM) has published a leaflet outlining local Quakers’ complicity in transatlantic chattel slavery.
Fourteen Quaker families are named in the leaflet, with examples of how individual Friends became involved. According to Bristol Friends, this ranged from importing crops produced by enslaved workers, to Quaker funding of slaving ships and Quaker ownership of plantations. Quaker records reveal that slavery-linked wealth helped to fund Quaker Meeting houses, as well as other prominent buildings in Bristol, they said.
The leaflet is being circulated to local people and institutions, and work has begun on a more detailed book.
Julia Bush, from the Bristol Quakers Reparations Group, told the Friend: ‘This is just the start. We needed to know more about exactly what happened in order to fully acknowledge extensive Quaker involvement. Our next step will be to consider making a public apology for Quaker complicity. We are already in close touch with local African heritage organisations, and will be considering possible future engagement in reparative justice projects.’
