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Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton (1758-1815)
Thomas Picton – also known as the Tyrant of Trinidad, or the Blood-Stained Governor – is a controversial figure. Historically he has been hailed a public ‘hero’, but his governance of Trinidad and his treatment of slaves marks him out as a particularly cruel leader.
Picton’s reputation was built on his military prowess. He fought under the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War. Wellington described him as 'a rough foul-mouthed devil as ever lived, but he always behaved extremely well'. He rose to military success, and was the highest-ranking officer to be killed defending Britain in the Battle of Waterloo, 1815.
Very quickly after his death he was hailed a war hero. A monument was erected in his name at St Paul’s Cathedral ‘in honour of the splendid victory of Waterloo’, and many other public memorials followed. In Wales this included an obelisk in Carmarthen paid for by public subscription, and later a marble sculpture of Picton in the Heroes of Wales series at Cardiff City Hall. Picton, born in Haverfordwest in 1758 – was seen by many as a source of national pride.
But public memorials, though built to remember, are often designed to forget. And that which has been forgotten in the glorification of individuals like Thomas Picton is the violence and atrocities of our colonial past.
Picton, like many others, directly profited from slave trade activities. More than this, he was renowned for his ruthless treatment of slaves and others as the first British governor of Trinidad.
In 1803 he was brought to trial in London for authorising the torture of Louisa Calderon, a free 14 year old described as a ‘mulatto’ girl, who had been accused of theft. Louisa was hung from a scaffold by her wrist for almost an hour, her entire weight being supported on an upturned wooden peg – an excruciating form of torture known as picketing.
During the trial, Picton was also investigated for torturing, decapitating and burning alive slaves accused of sorcery, witchcraft and necromancy. His small military force used hangings and mutilations as a way of keeping control. He was convicted, but the verdict was later overturned, with Picton arguing that Trinidad at the time was under Spanish law, which sanctioned torture.
This full-length portrait of Picton in military uniform by Martin Archer Shee was given to the National Museum of Wales in the year of its foundation, 1907 and is therefore among the earliest group of paintings to enter the museum’s collection. It is believed to have been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1816, a year after Picton’s death.
For a comprehensive account of the Louisa Calderon trial, and the role Thomas Picton played see James Epstein, ‘Politics of Colonial Sensation: The Trial of Thomas Picton and the Cause of Louisa Calderon’, American Historical Review (June 2007)
Comments - (5)
As Wales’s national museum, we have a duty to represent history as accurately as we can, to present a balanced perspective on the past, and to review our understanding when different facts and viewpoints are brought to our attention.
In the case of the portrait of Thomas Picton, achieving that balanced perspective means listening carefully to the voices of Black and minoritised communities who are often excluded.
Having been taken down from the Faces of Wales gallery at National Museum Cardiff, the portrait will be temporarily kept in the Museum’s stores. It will be redisplayed and reinterpreted over the coming months.
The decision to remove the portrait was made as part of Reframing Picton, which is a youth-led initiative involving Amgueddfa Cymru and community partner the Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel (SSAP). Our partnership with the Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel allows us to learn from Black lived experiences in Wales.
Picton has previously been hailed as a public hero but is equally notorious for his cruel treatment of Black enslaved people and free people, and for sanctioning torture during his governorship of Trinidad, from 1797 to 1803. The project team has spent over a year examining the history and legacy of Picton, his place within the Museum, and how he has been traditionally remembered.
This is another important step for Amgueddfa Cymru in examining our national collections and thinking about who we display in our Faces of Wales gallery and why. This project replaces one artwork – which assigns great importance to someone whose actions as Governor of Trinidad even at the time were seen as cruel – with a celebratory portrait of a worker – someone we can consider to be a hero in a very different way.
With respect I believe it wrong for the National Museum Wales to censure history by removing the painting of SIr Thomas Picton. Picton died at Waterloo fighting Napoleon, a tyrant who elevated slavery in the West Indies, planned to invade Great Britain and destroy the Royal Navy which was ultimately responsible for ending the West Atlantic slave trade. It is up to the public to form their own conclusions of what constitutes cruel behaviour based on accurate historical account. This encourages healthy debate on the subject and articulates the truth about the aims of the British Empire which was to eliminate slavery. Reframing history is merely concocting a version which fits into a fashionable view of events and flawed by inaccuracy which is improper for a museum. The use of the terms ‘violence and atrocities’ in relation to some British Colonies is indicative of this and an exaggeration of the true facts recorded meticulously by historians. Military violence was completely justified to end the barbaric and inhuman mass harvesting of slaves by West African Empires south of the Sahara and Colonisation prevented re-occurrence. I would appreciate an account of how you arrived at your findings to censure history.