Dundas relative decries farce over monument slavery plaque
A descendant of Henry Dundas involved in removing an “inaccurate” plaque from the Melville Monument says his row with the council has “descended into farce” after a new one was installed.
Bobby Dundas’s Melville Monument Committee (MMC) took the plaque off the base of the statue last September after he dismissed the inscription’s claim his controversial ancestor was “instrumental” in delaying abolition of the slave trade as “cartoonishly inaccurate”.
The council replaced the brass plate last week and said it would seek to recover the cost from the MMC.
Reacting, Mr Dundas said the local authority’s “fiveyear fixation” on the legacy of the prominent 18th century politician had “descended into farce”. He said no request had been received to pay for the plaque and was “confident the city has no claim”.
He told the LDRS: “The plaque is a joke. Most people who follow the controversy know that now. The plaque presumes that Henry Dundas and his government could have ended all British slave trading, all at once, overnight, with a single enactment in 1792, and not a single slave would have been trafficked to the Caribbean after that day.
“This is ludicrous. Eminent historians from around the world, including anti-Dundas historians, agree that such a result was impossible.”
Mr Dundas said the council was “engaged in a battle against historical accuracy” and added: “They may have restored the plaque but they have lost all credibility and respect – with historians and more importantly, with the public.”