If The Georgian House Could Speak

Picture of the Georgian House A play performed at the Georgian House, Bristol on Saturday, October 24th 1998.

If the Georgian House could speak, would it depict the lies told on the walls in the room next to John Pinney's bedroom, or would it speak the truth about the Bristol slave trade?

Would it gloss over the pain and humiliation suffered by the hundreds of thousands of slaves brought over to Bristol on the bottom of ships, or would it support the notion on the walls of the room which state that the condition of slavery was unknown. There is no room for the presentation of the Georgian House exhibit as it stands in Bristol, just one hundred and fifty years after the abolition of slavery, while the descendants of the slave trade still suffer the abomination and humiliation of its existence, headed by the British and continued by other Europeans and white Americans.

There is no room for a testimony to slavery as the words on the wall of the Georgian House so boldly project. John Pinney and others like him were racist, evil men, simple as that. Why does the city of Bristol in the year 1998 celebrate this monster? If the city of Bristol supports this display then the city must own the title of racist. Is Bristol a racist city? There is only room for indictment of a mentality which allowed human beings to be treated as animals.
© Lee Simon, Jr. 1998

The Georgian House - a museum owned by Bristol City Council - is a re-modelled depiction of life in Georgian times. The house was built by a slave owner and trader named John Pinney. In a small room at the top of the house a slight acknowledgement is made of the fact that Pinney's wealth and position were derived from the trade in human beings which built the wealth of Bristol in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Lee Simon, Charles Dumas, Jeremy McNeill and Tab Baker

Charles Dumas, Jeremy McNeill and Tab Baker

Black American actors , in Bristol performing in the play "Miss Evers' Boys" at Bristol Old Vic, were outraged at this pathetic exhibit. Lee Simon wrote a guerilla theatre piece to be performed in the "slave trade" room to tell the true story. The play was performed by Tab Baker, Lee Simon, Charles Dumas, Gustave Johnson and Jeremy McNeill.

We got about five minutes into the piece when we were asked to leave. We did so and continued the performance on the steps outside. The local press were in attendance and as you will see from the articles and letters in the press stories below some waves were made.
Charles Dumas, Jeremy McNeill, Gustave Johnson, Lee Simon

Charles Dumas, Jeremy McNeill, Gustave Johnson, Lee Simon

Photos by Craig Wroe

Script of If The Georgian House Could Speak | Press Stories | Official City Stuff on Georgian House | Other Slave Trade Links