BRISTOL – A life-size bronze memorial honoring the lives of enslaved people and acknowledging Bristol’s involvement in the slave trade has been erected on the Bristol waterfront.
The memorial, called “Our Ancestors Come With Us,” was developed by the Bristol Middle Passage Port Marker Project and unveiled at a ceremony on Aug. 24 that included U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo.
The memorial, depicting an African man, woman and child, was created by artist and Rhode Island School of Design professor Spencer Evans, a descendant of slaves.
Why was Bristol chosen for a Middle Passage Port Marker?
The Bristol Middle Passage Port Marker Project is a nonprofit organization of 12 community volunteers and part of the national Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project, which has identified 90 U.S. ports that participated in the transatlantic slave trade, according to the local group.“For hundreds of years, the true story of Bristol’s involvement in the Middle Passage Slave Trade has been left unspoken. It is time for change,” Ruthann DeLong, a member of the group’s board of directors, said previously…