Walk to/from Work. No 37

Pero's Bridge, Bristol.

Pero Jones was an enslaved African who came to live in Bristol in 1765, he was 12 years old. He died aged 45, there are no records to say he was given his freedom.

The naming of the bridge after Pero Jones was controversial, my MP at the time, Stephen Williams, said that it sounded 'political' It may have been, but what Mr Williams may have failed to appreciate is that many Bristol streets, buildings etc are named after those who were either directly involved in the transatlantic slave trade or benefited from it.

I have heard the argument many a time that 'it was the times' that slavery was an acceptable form of commerce in the eighteenth century and many benefited from it. But what makes Bristol perhaps unique is that the establishment have tried to airbrush over and deny Bristol's link to the slave trade. Bristol even manages to go a step further as every November schoolchildren gather in the Cathedral and at St Mary Redcliffe to celebrate the life of Bristol's most well known slave trader Edward Colston. They are even given Colston Buns to remember him.

I like this bridge and I like the name, because it's an honest reminder of those who lived and died many years ago under brutal circumstances.