Lot 481
A Wedgwood Jasper Ware Abolitionist Token or "Slave Medallion", c. 1787, design attributed to William Hackwood or to Henry Webber, both modelers at the Wedgwood factory, depicting a kneeling African man in chains underneath the phrase "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" E2000- 3000 Note: In England in 1787, the Society of the Abolition of Slavery designed and commissioned an engraving depicting a chained and kneeling naked African man. Josiah Wedgwood, himself a devoted abolitionist and member of the Society, produced a copy of the emblem in a Jasper Ware cameo. The following year, Wedgwood made a gift of a number of the medallions to Ben Franklin, President of the Abolitionist society in America. Franklin was so impressed by the small ceramic piece that he wrote to Wedgwood, "...I am persuaded that it may have an effect equal to that of the best written pamphlet in procuring honour to those oppressed people". Used to adorn hat pins, hair combs, bracelets and brooches, the "Slave Medallion" brought the horrors of the slave trade to the attention of the public, and became a fashionable reminder of human suffering. Reference: Wedgwood Museum
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