ANTI-RACISM campaigners have put together an interactive map of statues and monuments to slave traders and colonialists across the UK which they argue should be taken down.
The Topple the Racists website lists 12 Scottish monuments linked to slavery and colonial violence on the interactive resource, and says it hopes to “promote debate” around how different towns and cities remember their histories.
The group state they want to “shine a light on the continued adoration of colonial icons and symbols”, but say it is up to local communities to decide which monuments they want in their areas.
Edward Colston's statue was thrown into the river by protesters in Bristol
However Topple the Racists say the removal of statues could include transporting them to museums – and state there is no need to take buildings and streets listed down as these can be renamed.
The campaign was put together following the removal of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol this weekend.
During Black Lives Matter protests, participants brought down the monument and threw it into the city’s harbour.
The removal of the statue has sparked a UK-wide debate and led to cities offering to review their own monuments with links to slavery, as well as street and building names honouring those involved in the trade. However, some argue that the removal of such monuments is equivalent to erasing history.
These are the Scottish statues which campaigners argue should also be reviewed:
Edinburgh:
Henry Dundas
The statue of Henry Dundas has sat in St Andrew Square since 1827. A petition is calling for the statue of the man, who was instrumental in deferring the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, to be removed – and for the surrounding streets named after him to be renamed. However the City of Edinburgh is proposing to dedicate a plaque on the statue to victims of slavery, rather than remove it from the space altogether.
John Hope
The statue of John Hope, the 4th Earl of Hopetoun, stands outside Dundas House in the city. As a British Army officer in the West Indies, Hope helped stop a two-year slave revolution which led to the trade continuing for another 40 years in Grenada.
Glasgow
John Moore
John Moore was a British Army general who played a key role in suppressing a slave revolt on the island of St Lucia in 1796. His statue stands in George Square.
Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde
Colin Campbell also has a statue in George Square. The British Army officer was commander-in-chief of British forces in India in 1857 and commanded a regiment during the Opium War.
Sir Robert Peel
The website states that Robert Peel was a two-time Conservative PM and creator of the modern police force. It had previously stated he actively petition against the Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Bill, but it emerged that it was his father, who had the same name, who had opposed the legislation – seeing it as a threat to the cotton industry.
Thomas Carlyle
The statue of Scottish historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle stands in Kelvingrove Park. The academic was known for writing a racist essay which argued against the abolition of slavery. He supported violent measures against slaves in Jamaica.
Frederick Sleigh Roberts
A statue of Lord Roberts stands in Kelvingrove Park, too. Roberts was part of the East India Company and played a role in suppressing the first Indian War of Independence. Later he was involved in the Second Boer War, where he was instrumental in the creation of the first concentration camps.
Ayr
James George Smith Neill
In Wellington Square, there is a statue of James George Smith Neill, a Scottish military officer of the East India Company who served during the Indian rebellion of 1857. He was well-known for the indiscriminate killing of native Indians in revenge for the murder of British women and children at the Bibighar massacre.
Dunoon
The “Jim Crow” rock on Dunoon is a large rock shaped like a bird’s head, painted to appear like a bird with minstrel-like blackface and red lips. It shares a name with former racial segregation laws in the US. Attempts to have it painted over have failed, but now Michael Russell says the local community is taking action.
Perthshire
Melville Monument, Comrie
The Melville Monument is a memorial overlooking the village of Comrie, dedicated to Henry Dundas, the 1st Viscount Melville (mentioned already in the Edinburgh section of this list).
Dundee
George Kinloch
The George Kinloch statue in Dundee can be found at Panmure Street. He was a politician who advocated for parliamentary reform, but his wealth came from his slaves in Jamaica.
Golspie
The Duke of Sutherland Monument
The statue of George Leveson-Gower has long been seen as a controversial monument with attempts to remove it going back about 30 years. The duke’s involvement in the Highland Clearances, where he had families moved from his estate to make way for sheep production, has long caused anger. An attempt to dynamite the statue was made in 1994. The Topple the Racists campaign states Leveson-Gower also had links to the slave trade.
Orkney
The Kitchener Memorial
The memorial was created in 1926 in memory of Field Marshal Earl Kitchener of Khartoum who was one of 737 men who died when the HMS Hampshire was sunk by a mine in 1916. Lord Kitchener himself was involved in the creation of concentration camps in the Second Boer War.
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