Canal & River Trust concede to the BLM campaign

THE Canal & River Trust has recognized the Black Lives Matter campaign.

It has published an initial review of academic literature about canals and transatlantic slavery, so joining the many others who have succumb to its pressure telling' the Black Lives Matter movement has spurred on the Trust to start exploring these issues and make them more widely known'.

History remains hidden

It admits that some aspects of the canals’ history remain hidden or have never been researched and explored with wider audiences and believes that some people who made their wealth through the slave trade invested those profits in canal building, and some canals were built specifically to carry goods derived from the exploitation of slaves—tobacco, cotton and sugar for example.

The Black Lives Matter movement has spurred on the Trust to start exploring these issues and make them more widely known, commissioning people to help, and of its museum collections states:

Not representative

“We recognise that our National Waterways Museum Collection and Archives are not representative of all those whose lives that have been touched by the canals and that there are important stories waiting to be uncovered and made known.  As custodian of the waterways, and despite ongoing work with communities, we have lacked specific in-depth knowledge about the linkages between canal history and the transatlantic slave trade.

“We welcome the important conversations taking place about Black British history, and how best to recognise the legacy of Britain’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. We are pleased to publish this initial review and are working on how to move forward from this starting point.”

More money away from the waterways...