The Spectator

Who is most likely to be killed by police in the US?

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issue 13 June 2020

The Colston chronicles

Who, exactly, was Sir Edward Colston? Colston was born into a family of merchants and spent the first years of his career working for his father, trading cloth, wine, sherry and port around the western Mediterranean and North Africa. In 1680 he joined the Royal African Company which had been set up 20 years earlier by the Duke of York, the future James II, initially to exploit gold reserves in west Africa. In the 1680s it moved into the slave trade. Colston served one year as deputy governor of the company (the governor being James II). Colston also owned 40 of his own ships. He left the Royal African Company in 1692 and thereafter dedicated himself to public works in Bristol, spending £70,000 of his own cash (£15 million in today’s money) to build almshouses, a school and a hospital, among other things. But during this time he never lived in Bristol — he resided in Mortlake, where he is still honoured with a Colston Road.

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