Last week I read with absolute joy that the National Trust had commissioned a report into colonialism and historic slavery, and how these are linked to many National Trust properties. I read it ‘with joy’ because I’m a massive history geek, and love discovering what really went on in the past.
In order to appreciate and understand the world and our place in it today, surely we have to learn about what’s happened in years gone by.
So I was well and truly stumped when I read tweets declaring the National Trust was ‘jumping on the bandwagon,’ and attempting to ‘rewrite history.’ How can history be rewritten when it just wasn’t even included in the first place? The comedy gold came from people threatening to cancel their National Trust memberships, disgusted and outraged at the ‘wokeness’ of the report. Ah twitter, home of common sense, logic and polite conversation.
Pals. Is it really that ‘woke’ to acknowledge the whole of the past? Instead of just the bits that don’t make us feel uncomfortable?
(Also, I wonder how many of those relinquishing their membership actually read the report- as opposed to a Daily Mail ‘List of Shame’ rundown? Answers on a postcard please, or alternatively just state your guess in the comments! And here’s a link to the report, in case you’re interested.)
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There are two sides to every story. Exhibit A: El Draque.
A couple of years ago I spent a few months based in the Caribbean. I was LUCKY. It was GLORIOUS.
One swelteringly humid day I wandered into a cathedral in the city of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia, desperate for shade. I sat in a pew cooling off whilst reading about the cathedral’s history. And I was pretty full on confused to read about the time that the ‘pirate and slave trader’ ‘El Draque’ led an attack on Cartagena, during which half the city was set on fire and engulfed in flames. El Draque is what the Spanish call Sir Francis Drake. Drake and his men continued to loot and destroy Cartagena- almost bringing the cathedral down in the process- until the city paid a huge ransom for them to leave.
Here’s the city itself: An Introduction to Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
Well. That blew my mind. When I was at school I’d loved learning about Sir Francis Drake. Explorer extraordinaire and favourite of Queen Elizabeth the First! One of the first people to circumnavigate the entire world! Defeater of the Spanish Armada! An actual knight, and all round English HERO!
No-one had ever mentioned that as far as the Spanish are concerned, he’s the bloodthirsty pirate El Draque. Or that he was part of some of the very first slave expeditions to West Africa, capturing villagers who were then illegally sold to plantations in the Caribbean.
Why was I only given the ‘nice’ parts of Sir Francis Drake’s story at school? I doubt it was to save us from a tale which was too shocking for our young ears; I distinctly remember learning about the holocaust not long after our foray into Queen Elizabeth and the age of exploration.
Let’s face it, there’s no way of sugar-coating that.
How one city has chosen to address its own ‘two sides’
Let’s stick with the Caribbean for now, pals. For three months I sailed around the crystal waters of the Caribbean Sea, in a far less adventurous way than Francis Drake, because I was on a cruise ship.
Don’t get me wrong, the beaches of the Caribbean are paradise, but what’s the point of visiting somewhere without learning about it, as well? I tried to find as much out as I possibly could about the history of the islands we docked on. I went to museums or historical sights, and if I couldn’t find any information in these places, I took to Google to answer the questions in my curious mind. Colonisation and slavery are part of the history of almost every island we saw.
Like this Caribbean island: Docking in St Kitts and Nevis
Everyone knows that almost all of the Caribbean islands were colonised by opportunistic Europeans back in the day. Everyone knows that the plantations on these Caribbean islands were worked by slaves. At least, I hope everyone knows that. But how often do we think of the butterfly effect that this had on the rest of the world?
Or the butterfly effect that anything has on the rest of the world?
Take a glance at the French Caribbean: Docking in Guadeloupe
A few months after my Caribbean contract, I visited the beautiful city of Bordeaux, in the Aquitaine region of France. The city is stunning, full of elegant 18th century architecture and beautiful tree-lined boulevards, and was once one of the most important ports in France. On my last afternoon in Bordeaux I stepped into the Musee d’Aquitaine, and was met with a painting of one of the Caribbean ports I’d docked at a few months before. Except, the painting was several hundred years old. All the men were wearing tights and the port was filled with slave ships instead of cruise liners.
The painting was part of an exhibition on the slave trade, and how Bordeaux became filthy rich thanks to it.
Ship-owners sent ships to Africa to exchange goods for people, who were then transported in diabolical conditions to Caribbean islands like Martinique and Guadeloupe. Plantation owners (some of whom were also from Bordeaux) bought the people as slaves, and the goods from the plantations were then shipped to Europe, to be sold.
Unlike other cities which profited from the slave trade- of which there are many– Bordeaux has chosen to acknowledge its past. Yes, Bordeaux is a beautiful city, filled with beautiful architecture on par with the streets of Paris. But these stunning buildings were funded with the profits of a booming slave trade, and it’s important not to forget that.
Bordeaux is doing a brilliant job of beginning to acknowledge its past. As well as the exhibit, which opened in 2009, the city has begun to put up plaques in streets named after prolific slave traders, detailing their involvement in the slave trade, and erected statues of slaves who were bought and sold in the city.
Don’t get me wrong pals, this is a small price to pay. But my point here is that although we can’t change the past- we should be able to at least learn from it. By making its history common knowledge, Bordeaux is making it far easier for people to do just that.
And what about the present day?
And finally, pals, to more of a present day situation, and my own ignorance. On countless occasions I’ve mixed with people from all over the world, and discovered a perspective on my country which I was previously clueless about. (FYI, these examples have absolutely nothing to do with slavery, but they do show how we generally have a very one-sided view of our part in this big wide world.)
Looking at a map of the world in a Canadian hostel, and seeing the biro circle around the Falklands with a slightly intimidating “UK will pay for what you did to Argentina” scrawled next to it. I was genuinely taken aback, because I had absolutely no idea what the scrawl was referring to.
Sitting with a group of Serbian and Croatian pals discussing ‘the war.’ One Serbian turned to me and said tongue in cheek, “oh yeah, thanks for bombing our city by the way.”
“What did I do!?”
“Well you are part of NATO. Thanks for killing our people! Classic British attitude, you don’t even realise!”
The point isn’t what the situation was- or whether you believe that NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia was a crime or not- but that I naively didn’t know the UK had anything to do with it.
Wondering what Serbia is like: That Time I Went to Belgrade
Being invited to celebrate Indian Independence Day with Indian colleagues when I’m working on the ships. These parties are always legendary and everyone is always welcome. “Freedom from your country, hurrah!” Don’t get me wrong, we’d learnt about the British Empire at school and that once upon a time we were so great that the sun never set on us!! But that’s about it. I had no idea when India even gained its independence from the UK.
The Falklands War, the Kosovo War, and the Indian Independence Act (in fact the entire British occupation of India), are hugely complicated situations which would take a long old time to fully comprehend. When different ‘sides’ and so many different people are involved, it’s not as simple as good versus evil and wrong versus right.
But how embarrassing to not have the foggiest clue (in some cases), that my country was even involved in the first place? Let alone what our exact involvement was!?
I’m also not suggesting for a second that you could teach every single nuance of a conflict or political situation or historical event in a classroom. As adults, we have to take some responsibility for our own learning, and this means not just being spoon-fed by newspapers with tunnel-vision. Why can’t we do some digging of our own before forming an opinion?
What is even in our history books, then!?
When people began tearing down statues earlier this year, I saw a comment from a friend on Facebook, underneath a graffiti smattered statue of Churchill.
“These people are so stupid. All they need to do is read the history books to see that Churchill had absolutely nothing to do with racism!!”
Which is precisely the point! Dig a little deeper than what our school history-books (and a lot of national media) teach us. There’s no way you can deny that Churchill, had rather a lot to do with racism actually. And that’s putting it extremely lightly. Look it up, pals. He did some brilliant things as well, but why aren’t we given the full picture and allowed to make up our own mind?
I’m not saying our history books, (or our newspapers, for that matter), are necessarily full of lies. But when they omit the entire truth then surely we have a problem.
More so when they present either historical or present-day events as a fairytale-esque ‘goodies v baddies’ situation. Nothing is ever that simple.
“Great Britain- great. Enemies- bad.”
When we’re children, we’re taught ‘history’ and we believe that what we’re taught is true. Then we grow up and we read newspapers or watch the news, and we believe it to be true.
“Great Britain- great. Enemies- bad.”
I reckon it’s a bit of a caveman-style attitude to have, in all honesty.
I know that I’m extremely privileged to be able to travel, and to meet, work with and befriend people from so many different cultures, backgrounds, religions and countries. It’s made me a far more open-minded person, and has opened my eyes to the rest of the world and where we fit into it.
But it makes me sad to think that ‘seeing the bigger picture,’ is reserved for those able to travel, or for those who are curious enough to go on a frantic google search, or museum-hunt. Everything that has happened before we got here has shaped our present day, so why should we not have the opportunity to learn about it from the very start?
Let’s rewrite history!
The National Trust has gone one step closer to making these stories of the past accessible for everyone, and I bloomin’ well applaud them for it!
If I go and visit a historic property here in lovely old England- especially if I’ve paid my hard-earned money to get in- then I expect to be able to learn as much as possible whilst I’m there. I want to know the stories of the people who lived there, and I want to know how these places got to be built in the first place; I certainly don’t want half the history to be hidden from me.
I genuinely can’t understand why other people wouldn’t want that, as well- at any level. Whether that’s what we teach our children at school, or what we learn as adults.
How can we influence the future if we can’t acknowledge the past?
If you made it to the end of this ramble, then congratulations! You surely deserve some kind of certificate. What do you think about all this National Trust business? Should information about our history be more accessible, or should that be reserved for people wanting to seek it out? I’m a curious gal, and I’m curious to know what you think.
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Very good Alex. X
I think the national trust, or whoever, should put everything for all to read/ see, the truth, just as it is/ was. Even if we don’t like it! We’ll never know without being told. And we can never change anything if we don’t realise what went on.
Thankyou for reading Judith, and thank you for your comment! I do appreciate hearing people’s thoughts.
Absolutely- I think most of us would much rather be told the whole truth than a sugar-coated version of it. There’s so much history (especially in the National Trust properties, let’s face it) that we could learn from- we might as well take the opportunity where we can!
Brilliant post, Alex. I too was bamboozled by everyone’s comments on the National Trust posts – I thought it was a great idea. I’m willing to bet half the people who screamed that they were cancelling their membership did not, in fact, have a membership in the first place.
I find it all really interesting that people are taught perspectives of history. Like you said we are taught about the Nazis but not about our involvement in slavery, or about colonialism or wars that we caused. In England, you’re taught that the British empire was this incredible thing instead. A total focus on the positive history of ourselves, and any negative history was something that happened in other countries. And yet we look at America with incredulity about how proud they are of their history, like the one-sided narrative of the Vietnam war – but exactly the same is happening here! I’ve learned a lot about Churchill in the past few months. Yes, he got us through the war and was a brilliant leader in hard times, but there’s a reason you don’t hear about his second term, yet the people crying about rewriting history don’t want to face up to the actual history that happened.
And of course it’s still happening now. We’re selling weapons to the middle east and then complaining about the refugees fleeing war created from our very own weapons. Again, it’s all about narrative, and I’m hoping that is about to change.
Thankyou so much for reading and thanks for your comment too!
Yes it’s something that I’ve thought more and more about the more I’ve travelled. That’s such a good point about American history; this one-sided view isn’t something that’s unique to England at all. Every now and then I get messages from colleagues who live in different countries asking me if something they read in the news about England is true and almost every time the story in their news is a complete lie. (Either that or they know something we don’t!)
Obviously digressing from the ‘history’ point here but yes- SO interesting how we’re all shown a rather tunnel-visioned perspective of the world isn’t it!? Whether it’s historical or present day events, you’re right- it’s all about the narrative and I really really hope these gradual changes will help.
(You might be onto something when it comes to the National Trust memberships as well!)