Description
This small plaque featuring a kneeling figure of an enslaved African man beneath the words Am I not a man and a brother? became a symbol of the British antislavery movement. Wedgwood distributed these plaques to advance the abolitionist message; the figure’s supplicant posture was intended to stir benevolence and support for abolition among the white recipients of this token. Made from Josiah Wedgwood’s fashionable jasperware ceramic, more typically used to emulate ancient cameos, the plaque is framed by cut-steel “gems” and set in ivory from Africa. Despite its abolitionist slogan, the medallion embodies the entanglement of British taste, industrial innovation, and colonial exploitation in the late 1700s.
Accession Number
66185
Medium
Stoneware (jasperware and black basalt), cut steel, and ivory
Dimensions
5.2 × 4.1 × 0.7 cm (2 1/16 × 1 5/8 × 1/4 in.)
Classification
accessories (object genre)
Credit Line
Amelia Blanxius Memorial Collection, gift of Mrs. Emma B. Hodge and Mrs. Jene E. Bell