I don't know how I feel about this.

[Ally]

[tim17]

Learn from history, don't try and erase it.

[mysty]

Learn from history, don't try and erase it.

Surely only a white person would admire that statue.
Not many statues of Hitler but no one has forgotten about him.

[FrenchForumSurvivor]

Wikipedia editors have obviously been working today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Colston - see towards the end.

[mysty]

If Price Charles came up to Maidens and rounded up 75 woman and children, took them to England sold the prettier ones to the sex trade and the rest got sold off as cleaners, then a statue of Charles was displayed in Ayr town centre.
Would you like it.
I hope that highly unlikely scenario will help sway your mind one was or another.

[Crystal]

I would guess that 99% of the people helping to pull it down didn't even have a clue who the statue was of....let alone knew anything about Colston.
Did anyone on here know anything about the man, or ever hear his name, until today?

[Ally]

I agree that it should be removed. I'm just not sure that it should be at the hands of what appeared to be a mob hell bent on destruction. Scotland has plenty of statues and reminders of colonialist characters that I'd happily see binned. The Duke of York on the esplanade at Edinburgh Castle and the Duke of Sutherland at Golspie.

[Crystal]

I agree that it should be removed. I'm just not sure that it should be at the hands of what appeared to be a mob hell bent on destruction...

That is exactly the point I was making - most involved in the destruction were doing it solely as an act of vandalism.

[Ally]

I would guess that 99% of the people helping to pull it down didn't even have a clue who the statue was of....let alone knew anything about Colston.
Did anyone on here know anything about the man, or ever hear his name, until today?

I'm sure he was well known where his statue was located. As a great figure of the Empire and a benefactor. Perhaps if the dark side of Britains history was taught in schools more people would know true story of Colston and his likes and wrongs could have be righted a long time ago.

[Stompie]

The way it was removed will be remembered. Had it been removed officially it would have rated a small mention in the news and then it, and the man, would be forgotten.
These statues may have been erected as a tribute but they serve as a valuable reminder of the wrongs done. I never pass the statue of the Duke of Sutherland without thinking of the people cleared for his convenience.