The town of Kettering, Northamptonshire bares in its coat of arms a depiction of a slave with broken manacles. However, many of the towns inhabitants don't realise what for and the significance of the Kettering man who helped bring slavery in the British Empire to an end. 

William Knibb was a Minister and Abolitionist who, throughout his short life in Jamaica and England, materially and spiritually supported slaves and freedmen through his education, land buying and anti colonialist programs.

Not only this, it was Knibb, acting on the request of the Jamaican slaves, who was instrumental in the final abolishion of slavery in the British Empire. His arguments in both Houses of Parliament were recorded as being the most powerful witness testimonies which would contribute to end slavery. 

This petition was inspired by the rightful destruction of the racist monument to Edward Colston in Bristol and the Black Lives Matter Movement throughout the world. With the destruction of a monument pardoning the slave trade and the brutal centuries of murder that it has brought, I thought that now would be the perfect time to erect a Statue to William Knibb.

His efforts to free slaves and help them to free themselves through education and the ability to create their own livelihoods should be commemorated and hasn't been in his home town for too long. 

Thank you