St Mary Redcliffe Church

This large Church of England church is a very fine example of how a church can be enlarged and supported by a very wealthy congregation. Some members of the Society of Merchant Venturers, a group of rich Bristol merchants who owned and invested in trade businesses, including slave voyages and other activities related to the slave trade, gave money to the church. Many of the Venturers were baptised, confirmed, married and buried here or in the nearby Bristol Cathedral. Within this church and the cathedral, there are a number of monuments to wealthy members of the slave-ship and plantation-owning families. They saw no contradiction between being a Christian and enslaving human beings.