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ADESCENDANT of the Picton family said Cardiff’s statue of Sir Thomas Picton in City Hall should be placed in a new museum of slavery.
Both the mayor and leader of Cardiff council called this week to remove the statue of the 19th-century war hero, following the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol.
Picton has been described as a “sadistic slave owner”.
He was the colonial governor of Trinidad, when he was found guilty of torturing a 14-year-old girl.
Now questions have been asked about what to do with the statue, and what to replace it with in City Hall’s “Heroes of Wales” memorials.
Aled Thomas said he was descended from the Picton family, and suggested putting the statue in a new national museum of slavery.
In a letter to council leader Huw Thomas, he said: “Sir Thomas Picton’s grandfather, Owen Picton, was my eight-times-great grandfather. However, while I am related to the Picton family, I do not defend the cruelty that Sir Thomas Picton caused.
“In fact, I feel rather embarrassed to admit I am related to him. We cannot help where we are from and who we are descended from.
“Also, we cannot change what has happened in the past. But what we can do is learn from them.
“My personal recommendation would be to call on the Welsh and UK governments to set up a National Slavery Museum where everything which relates to slavery is kept in one collection such as the statues of slave owners.
“In this museum there should be detailed descriptions of their history. I think this museum should be similar to the National Holocaust Museums.”
Neil McEvoy, leader of the Welsh National party and councillor for Fairwater, called for the removal of the Picton statue two years ago – but he said he was “laughed at” for the suggestion.
He wrote to Paul Orders, chief executive of Cardiff council, in June 2018, and said: “Could the leadership discuss taking it out please? It really should not be there.”
Now, Cllr McEvoy is calling for the Picton statue to be replaced with a statue of Billy Boston: a black rugby player from Cardiff, a “true son of Tiger Bay and legend in rugby league”.
Cllr McEvoy said: “Cardiff is our proud capital city of Wales built by people from all parts of the world and countries closer to home like Ireland and England. We all live and have lived here together. Let’s celebrate that fact.”
He also suggested statues of rugby player Clive Sullivan and boxer Joe Erskine – “other great Cardiffians of colour”.
Rhys Taylor, leader of the Cardiff Liberal Democrats, called for a statue to be erected of the first ever black headteacher in Wales.
He said: “A huge number of people took part in the Hidden Heroines campaign last year.
“People opted for Butetown’s own Betty Campbell, Wales’ first ever black headteacher. A Hall for Heroes should celebrate people like Betty.”
A council spokesman said: “Cardiff Council has already announced that it will debate and take a vote on the future of the Picton statue as soon as is practicably possible.
“The debate on historical statues and their significance is not a new one. There have been several long-running, highly-publicised and failed campaigns to remove statues around the UK including those of Cecil Rhodes in Oxford and Oliver Cromwell in Westminster.
“Picton’s statue in Cardiff has never provoked the same level of debate, although a newspaper article published in 2018 did ask the question about whether his statue had a place in City Hall.
“Recently, however, the Black Lives Matter movement has done much to make society reconsider how it views the significance of historical statues, especially those with links to slavery.
“It is the council’s role to listen, respect and to reflect the views and wishes of all its citizens as society’s values change, which is why a motion on the future of Picton’s statue will be taken forward as soon as is practicable.”
Meanwhile, a history group is calling for a plaque to a slave ship captain be removed from a Welsh market town.
The plaque to Capt Thomas Phillips was mounted on a wall at Captain’s
Walk in Brecon just 10 years ago.
But a history group says the £600 slate plaque makes no direct reference to Captain Thomas Phillips’ role in the grim trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Phillips documented his journey in 1693 carrying humans stolen from
Africa to captivity and forced labour in the Caribbean.
During the journey more than 300 of the captured, including women and children, died and its feared some were thrown overboard.
The plaque acknowledges Phillips as the author and as a captain of his ship the Hannibal, but there is no mention of slavery.
Rosemary Caldicott, of the Bristol Radical History Group, said it would like to see Brecon Town Council, which commissioned the plaque, take action to either ensure the plaque references Phillips’ role in the slave trade or remove it.
She said: “I think the council has an ethical duty to provide further information with the correct history of what happened on the voyage of the Hannibal, and that could be done really easily, or if they are not able to do that the plaque should be removed.”
She said the history group has been angered not only at the failure to acknowledge Phillips’ role in the slave trade, but the plaque ignores how at least 328 of the 700 Africans the slavers were taking to the West Indies died during the voyage.
“The plaque doesn’t explain he was the captain of a slave ship and what happened on that ship. It is misinformation,” said Ms Caldicott.
At the time the plaque was unveiled Brecon Town Council had defended its erection by referring to what it considered “liberal remarks” made by Phillips in his journal.
He had written of his captives: “I cannot imagine why they should be despised for their colour seeing what they cannot help and the effect of the climate God has given them.
“I cannot think there is any basic value in one colour more than another, nor that white is better than black, only we think so because we are so,” he wrote.