Plaque for slave owner will be removed from Dorchester church
St Peter's have decided to take down the memorial for John Gordon.
A controversial plaque commemmorating a slave owner who died in Dorchester is going to be removed.
The memorial for John Gordon is on display at St. Peter's church on High West Street, but will be covered up very soon and removed within months.
It praises John Gordon for his role in stopping a revolt in which 450 enslaved people were killed and tortured, and 500 more sold on.
The Parochial Church Council have now decided to remove the plaque.
It will be offered to Dorset County Museum or another venue to form the basis of an educational display.
David Rhodes of Stand up to Racism Dorset said:
“We congratulate the Church Council for this decision, and especially the efforts of the church warden in steering a course through the church decision-making process.
"We believe that the Council has made the right decision. It is good that the church is taking steps to acknowledge our ‘shameful past’.
"It is a recognition by the church, and by the congregation that we've been wrong to tolerate this commemmoration of racism and it will go just a little bit towards helping to remove the legacy of racism and colonialism."
'Slavery in Jamaica'
In the mid-18th century Jamaica was the wealthiest colony in the British Empire - a result of the trade in sugar from slave-based plantations. There were three significant uprisings by enslaved people in 1760, the first of which became known as Tacky’s Revolt, after the name of one of its leaders. It was brutally suppressed, and some 450 enslaved people died. Many were tortured and many leaders were put to horrible deaths. Another 500 people were sold on to other colonies, to break up kinship groups and recoup some losses for the former owners.
According to the plaque, John Gordon was “signally instrumental in quelling” the rebellion and he was involved in selling on many of the defeated fighters. He was also a significant slave-owner himself – his probated estate lists him as having 416 slaves.
David added:
"History is not a static, unchanging thing. We can't change the past but we can change the stories we tell about the past, the way we look at the past and even the way we commemmorate the past.
"So to that extent, history is changing all the time.
"This particular plaque is history told from the perspective of slave owners, from the perspective of white supremacy. We need history to be told from different perspectives.
"That's why I don't think this really contributes to an understanding of history. That isn't what it's there for."