Slavery Heritage in Bristol: History, memory and forgetting

Abstract

Reporting a pilot study for a PhD research project, this paper explores the promotion and presentation of the Slave Trade Trail around Central Bristol from the original 1998 pamphlet with the same title to its modern organisation. The Slave Trade Trail explores Bristol's associations with slavery, and involves the physical movement of tourists through the built environment as they visit sites particularly associated with the trade. The research employs visual methods, to examine ways in which history, heritage, and memory are (re)presented; and to explore the images and artefacts presented on this trail. The paper identifies a number of concepts in the current literature on slavery heritage, and applies these concepts to the trail, analysing its nature and current organisation. Specifically, the related concepts of meaning, (mis)representation, (in)visibility, inclusion, and denial are investigated; all of which are evident in the Slave Trade Trail.

Key words:

• Slavery heritage
• heritage trails
• memory
• visual ethnography
• Bristol