If the plans to erect a monument to commemorate the achievements of Thomas Fowell Buxton were purely a memorial to ‘an obscure long-dead individual’ I think I might agree with GC Lake (Your Say). However, the aims of the society are not so much a marking of the past achievements as raising awareness amongst people – locals and visitors alike – of a man who worked against the injustices of his day with such energy and integrity, and encouraging us that similar achievements are still possible today.
The trans-Atlantic slave trade and its horrors are studied in the history curriculum in schools throughout the country. Our children learn of the work of Thomas Clarkson, William Wilber-force, Olaudah Equiano and many others who battled long and hard to bring an end to what they quite rightly referred to as an abomination. And yet this was only the start. Their aim all along was to bring about the end of slavery itself – children were still born into slavery and bought and sold like a piece of livestock – and this was the cause that was taken on by Thomas Fowell Buxton. Personally I think it will be good for our local schoolchildren to learn that it was the Weymouth MP who achieved this, and to learn something of his life here and in Westminster.
Looking at modern day issues being addressed by parliament today might provoke a discussion on ‘what would Buxton have thought?’ If the society’s aims of raising awareness of this man and his work, and linking with schools and other groups campaigning against racism, modern day slavery and sex trafficking, can inspire even a handful of us to follow his example, then that would have a significant effect.
Elisabeth Orrell Weymouth
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