163 Bristol, England, Bristol Cathedral, remembering slavery.
Formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. What impressed me with Bristol Cathedral was their moves to commemorate, apologize for, and inform about the history of slavery and the important role the Church of England played in this horrific exploitation. Some of the prettiest chunks of the church were paid for by money which came from slavery two or three centuries ago, in particular through the patronage of Thomas Daniel, buried in the cathedral, who “owned” more than 4 000 enslaved individuals. Not only is this acknowledged, but the cathedral wanted to do a little something to apologize concretely. They managed to find the names of a few of the enslaved workers involved at the time, tracked down their descendants and allowed them to tell their story in an exhibition in the cathedral. When I visited this time, there was another exhibition on Black people’s links to the cathedral, way back. There are a couple of hundred enslavers buried in the cathedral ...