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Good Morning Mr Colston

from Stolen From God by Reg Meuross

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about

The phrase The Triangular Trade? Originated from a large section of the slave trade which was the imprint of its three major passages.
The First Passage: Ships sailed south from English ports carrying, cloth, wool, weapons & ironware to the West African coast where they traded for Africans which were then transported West in... The Middle Passage : Traumatised men, women and children were transported across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, West Indies and the southern states of America, there to be sold and traded for sugar or Molasses, tobacco, rum, cotton, etc, which was then carried east in…. The Third Passage : back across the Atlantic to Britain.
In 1672 The Royal African Company (RAC), was established by Royal Charter to trade slaves, who were branded with hot irons with the company’s initials, on expeditions originating from London ports.
By 1698 The RAC & the ports of London had lost their exclusivity when parliament passed the Trade with Africa Bill and the trafficking of stolen Africans was declared a free for all. Bristol, along with other ports like Liverpool & Bridgwater was officially licensed to trade.
There was very little opposition, admittedly the true horrors were still largely unknown or unseen to most people, although the wealth and prosperity was not. The Quakers were one of the few organisations to resist and later would be instrumental in the fight for abolition.
In the late 1600’s in Bristol there were four major sugar refining businesses and one of the most influential merchants, a partner in St Peter’s Sugar House and an official in the Royal African Company was Sir Edward Colston.

lyrics

Good Morning Mr Colston
Good morning Mr Colston I see your ship’s come in
Will you pay a hundred dollars for my torn and ragged skin?
Cos the master needs his coffee and the master needs his rum
And the missus needs her sugar to make her sugar plum
Good morning Mr Colston when will your kingdom come?

They tell me Mr Colston you’re a God fearing man
Did the lord give you permission to take me from my land?
Though we’re equal in construction did he render you the best?
Do you hold a sacred licence to burn letters in my chest?
Good morning Mr Colston when will your soul be blessed?

Am I not a brother and a man with a right to breathe the Bristol air
And walk this pleasant land? Am I not a brother and a man?

Good morning Mr Colston bless your generosity
It’s thanks to you there’s hospitals and poor-folk property
It’s thanks to you a 100 thousand souls were sold as slaves
And a quarter died in transit and the ocean was their graves
Good morning Mr Colston when will your soul be saved?

Good morning Mr Colston I see you on the strand
Beneath your arm The Manifest your Bible in your hand
Your sugar from Barbados your coffee from Brazil
For each white child you educate another black child killed
Good morning Mr Colston when will your cup be filled?

Am I not a sister on this earth? and black or white each child agrees
On every mother’s worth am I not a sister on this earth?

Instrumental verse concertina

Good morning Mr Colston your philanthropy is plain
There’s hardly hall or street or school that doesn’t bear your name
It’s a golden chain that binds you to a poison legacy
No statue or memorial can hide your history
Good morning Mr Colston when will your soul be free?

credits

from Stolen From God, released April 7, 2023
Reg Meuross: Vocal / Guitar
Jali Fily Cissokho : Kora
Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne: Concertina
Roy Dodds: Percussion
Tom Jobling: Percussion
Reg / Cohen / Jaz Gayle / Katie Whitehouse: BVox


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Reg Meuross England, UK

The breadth and depth of Reg Meuross’s material is unparalleled in contemporary folk: songs about forgotten heroes, famous names, folk legends, the climate emergency, tales from the kitchen sink and news from the world stage; if something needs to be sung about then Reg Meuross has a song for it. ... more

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