Baltimore Confederate statues torn down in the middle of the night after Charlottesville violence

Towns and cities across US consider whether to remove monuments honouring pro-slavery figures

The Confederate statue of General Robert E Lee has been the focus of protests in Charlottesville (AP)

Confederate-era statues in Baltimore, Maryland have been torn down in the middle of the night after the city council voted unanimously to remove them.

Four monuments that paid tribute to leading members of Confederate were toppled, including the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument and the Confederate Women’s Monument, as well as statues commemorating Confederate Army generals Robert E Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and pro-slavery Supreme Court judge Roger B Taney.

It follows violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, that centred on the city’s plans to remove a statue of Robert E Lee, who led the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

Confederate statues have been the subject of controversy across the US, with critics saying they inappropriately honour a racist era of US history and those responsible for it. The Confederacy of Southern states supported slavery and split from the rest of the United States in opposition to attempts to restrict the practice.

Defenders of the monuments, however, say those they commemorate were killed while fighting to protect their way of life and the right of their individual states’ to decide on matters such as slavery. They believe removing the statues amounts to destruction of the US’s history and heritage.

Video posted on social media showed cranes removing the Baltimore statues from their perches and lorries taking them away. The city’s Mayor, Catherine Pugh, said some would be taken to Confederate cemeteries.

Baltimore City Council decided on Monday to remove the statues after the violent clashes between white supremacist groups and anti-racism campaigners in Charlottesville, in which a 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, was killed when a car rammed into protesters.

There are estimated to be 718 Confederate statues and monuments across the US, of which around 300 are in the southern states of Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina.

A number of other US towns and cities have plans to take down their Confederate statues. One was removed in the Florida town of Gainesville on Monday, while Lexington in Kentucky also has plans to move two monuments. Some towns have covered up the monuments while they decide what to do with them.