Edward Colston

Colston was an English merchant born into a prosperous Bristol merchant's family whose wealth mainly derived from the slave trade.

Colston ran his own business in London by 1672 trading in cloth, wine, sugar and slaves. At the time, London was the main centre of English slave trade, and only after Colston’s death, in the 1730s and 1740s, Bristol occupied the first place and later was overtaken by Liverpool. In 1680 Colston became an official of the Royal African Company, which held the monopoly on slave trading in the country. At one point, he owned 40 ships for transport of slaves, and his brother Thomas supplied the glass beads that were used to buy slaves. One of the historical irony is that Colston used much of his wealth acquired through slave exploitation for philanthropic purposes. He founded two almshouses and a school, donated means to other schools, churches and hospitals. He was also appointed MP of the city for a short time.