Henry Dundas is the latest target in the domino line of historical figures toppled by a reckoning of anti-Black racism.
In Toronto, an online petition calling for Dundas Street to be renamed had garnered thousands of signatures on Wednesday.
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In Edinburgh, Scotland, a descendant of Henry Dundas has urged the city council to make changes to a statue of the historical figure, asking that a plaque explaining his ancestor’s racist history be put in place. Quickly, a movement to tear down the statue all together ignited.
So, why is Henry Dundas so contentious?
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Dundas was a Scottish politician in the late 18th century. In 1794, he was appointed the first Secretary of State for War, Edinburgh News reported .
He came to be known as “the great tyrant,” particularly for delaying the abolition of slavery in the British empire by 15 years.
The slave trade in the empire ended in 1807, but if it were not for Dundas’ obstruction, it would have ended in 1792.
A year earlier, Dundas became the last person to be impeached in the United Kingdom for mishandling public funds. He was acquitted but never returned to public office.
By delaying the abolition of slavery, Dundas caused 630,000 people to wait more than a decade for their relative freedom.
Abandoning the legacy
Toronto Mayor John Tory said the petition to rename Dundas Street was something that should be discussed and carefully considered.
The organizer, local artist Andrew Lochhead, said he was inspired to start the petition after hearing about calls to tear down the statue of Dundas in Edinburgh.
The leader of city council there said he would have “absolutely no sense of loss” if the Dundas statue was removed and replaced with something else.
Likewise, protesters in Bristol, England, on Sunday tore down a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston, rolled it to the harbour and plunged it into the sea.
Lochhead said it’s particularly galling that Toronto would keep Dundas’s name, given his negligible positive impact on Canada.
“Henry Dundas has very little if any impact on British North America other than the fact that he purposely obstructed the abolition of slavery and other than the fact he happened to be mates with John Graves Simcoe,” he said. “Other than that the connection is pretty tenuous.”
