During my schooling we learned about the Transatlantic slave trade, and something of Bristol's key role in it. I recall a book of writings by slaves (To be a Slave, edited by Julius Lester), and being taken by my parents to see this grave in the churchyard of St. Mary's in Henbury. amongst other things. Glossed over quickly though were many details about from what and where the city's wealth had been derived.
Visiting again on a roasting day, the church is locked, but the yard is shady. The grave looks, frankly, awful. It was broken in two in 2020 as a counter protest to the felling of the Colston statue during Black Lives Matter. Being Grade II listed, it was repaired in 2021 and given this cheesy paint job. We are in Monkey Christ territory to my eyes. I don't recall it being painted before, but my memory of forty plus year's ago is sketchy and could well be wrong.
Worse though is the verse on the footstone with its now especially offensive third and fourth lines: 'What tho' my hue was dark my SAVIORS sight/ Shall Change this darkness into radiant light'
Little is known about Scipio. He seems to have been named after the Roman General by his owner, Charles William Howard, 7th Earl of Suffolk, who had a large house in Henbury. He might have been born to a West African slave mother in this household. What is clear is that he died at a mere eighteen years old and his grave is a rare thing in Britain - a contemporaneous memorial to a slave, even if his birth does not appear in the church's records.
Missing though is any kind of signage of explanation and restorative history. The church would do well to erect such and to supplement its website, along the lines of all the good work that has been done in this area by Bristol Cathedral.
