Opinion: We can’t erase all symbols of slavery
Cllr Andrew Wood believes "We need to learn from our histories mistakes and focus on combatting todays racism and inequality". - Credit: Mike Brooke
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The Roman leader Julius Caesar captured towns and sold all of their residents into slavery to fund his military campaigns.
His adopted son Augustus was scarcely better, it is estimated that up to 40 per cent of Rome’s population were slaves.
So in the campaign to remove symbols of slavery, it should be clear that we need to rename the months of July (Julius) and August (Augustus) as both months were named after them.
Do we also ban all three major Abrahamic religions as all three regulate the use of slavery and permitted its continuing existence?
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That is the logical endpoint of the attempts by some campaigners to remove our links to slavery.
I remain unconvinced that it is the right solution to our complex history nor the Black Lives Matter campaign to reduces today’s inequalities. We need to learn from our histories mistakes and focus on combatting today’s racism and inequality.
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