This is not a good look for my local authority @CausewayCouncil.

Now, they're not proposing to put up a statue, but if time had been taken to do a little more homework ...
1/8 https://twitter.com/Stephenmccrack4/status/1362177752233893897

They would have discovered that the story of #HerculesMulligan is a little more complicated than 'hero of the American Revolution' as described here by @BelTel. 2/8 https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/coleraine-hero-of-american-revolution-hercules-mulligan-to-be-celebrated-40103696.html

A simple google turns up that he did own a slave, a man called #Cato, about which very little is known (of course) except that he was a 'faithful accomplice' of Mulligan, who was an important spy for the Patriot side. 3/8
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_(spy) 

And things get even more complicated. Mulligan was also one of the founding members of the New York Manumission Society, established in 1785 to campaign for the 'gradual' abolition of slavery and freeing of slaves by their owners. 4/8
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Manumission_Society

Many of the founding members were slave owners themselves. At the same time, the society was instrumental in state laws prohibiting the sale of slaves brought into New York and making it easier to free slaves. They also organised boycotts against prominent local slave traders 5/8

This multi-faceted complexity I find utterly fascinating. And if @CausewayCouncil Museums Service include Mulligan in a future heritage trail, as proposed, they will approach the challenge with thoughtfulness and care - as they have with other, equally complex, subjects. 6/8

Quite how you tell this story fully as one element in a heritage trail, I really don't know. Alternatively, this moment is an opportunity for deeper engagement with the legacies of slavery. Mulligan won't be the only prominent person from this area who owned or traded slaves. 7/8

Being aware his story is complicated doesn't negate Mulligan's other achievements. It allows for a more nuanced understanding of him and the times he lived in. And we could all benefit from a clearer understanding of the complexity of the past and its legacy in our present. 8/8