Dundas plaque application is apparently generating some heat. Without debating the broader issues of statue toppling, or building re-naming, i'd like to think that we could all agree that a wee plaque on this massive bit of statuary is not inappropriate?
Link to the planning permission application: https://citydev-portal.edinburgh.gov.uk/idoxpa-web/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=QF7FWLEWIOS00
Some context:
Professor Geoff Palmer, Scotland’s first black professor and someone who has been campaigning for Scotland to properly recognise its role in Transatlantic slavery, has been campaigning for several years to have a plaque mounted on the Melville Monument in St Andrew’s Square. This is the most prominent statue in the city and commemorates Henry Dundas.
Prof Palmer has been highlighting the fact that Dundas played a pivotal role in delaying the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. After years of wrangling a wording for a new plaque was agreed.
This text has had input from university of Edinburgh historians and represents the settled academic view that Dundas was working for the interests of plantation owners and wanted abolition delayed indefinitely. There is, to quote Diana Paton, professor of Caribbean history, "no serious scholar of the Transatlantic slave trade who does not think that Dundas played a pivotal role in delaying abolition". Through the link below you can follow a recent workshop held on Dundas:
In addition here is a blog post by Prof Melanie Newton, who participated in the workshop, that captures her presentation:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/henry-dundas-empire-and-genocide/
Supporters of the current Viscount Melville have mounted a concerted campaign to inject uncertainty into this debate. Threatening to sue for defamation, complaints to the university, threatening a judicial review, accusing committee members of voting because they are scared of being accused of racism, daily re-editing of wikipedia to represent an entirely false view of the academic consensus (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wikipedia-war-over-henry-dundas-slavery-role-fwbjvhjvz), and invoking academics who are not expert in this matter.
Edinburgh City Council are seeking planning permission for the plaque and the deadline for submissions for or against is tomorrow. At the moment there is a concerted attempt by a group calling themselves ’Save our Statues’ to encourage people from across the world to raise objections. Over 1200 people have made submissions and ‘for' and ‘against' is finely poised.
Over to you fine citizens...
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