Contested Histories

A six-minute short which captures the removal of a memorial to a slave owner from a church to a museum, following years of consultation and research. It is the first time a piece of contested heritage in a Church of England church has been removed from a church to a museum.

The memorial in St Peter’s Church, Dorchester, commemorates John Gordon, who managed plantations in Jamaica for absentee British owners, and also owned some plantations himself. The memorial is highly unusual in recording an actual instance of rebellion by enslaved people – Tacky’s revolt of 1760 – and is considered to be of historical importance for this reason.  However the wording on the monuments explicitly refers to Gordon’s actions in quelling the rebellion, praising him and using offensive language.

Contested Histories includes interviews with Professor Brown, Max Hebditch, member of St Peter’s Church in Dorchester and former trustee of the Dorset Museum, and St Peter’s Church Warden, Val Potter, as they navigate the complex landscape of contested heritage, and the politics of monuments and their removal.