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Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion, 1.25˝ in diameter, which depicts a kneeling black man in chains with his hands raised to the heavens, with surrounding raised text: “Am I not a man and a brother?” The reverse is stamped “Wedgwood Made In England, C 76, B M W.” In fine condition.
The Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion was an abolitionist symbol produced and distributed by British potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood in 1787 as a seal for the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The medallion was produced as a jasperware cameo by Wedgwood's factory—the Etruria Works— and widely distributed in Britain and the United States. These cameos were worn as pendants, inlaid in snuff boxes, and used to adorn bracelets and hairpins, rapidly becoming fashionable symbols of the British abolition movement. The medallion helped to further the abolitionist cause and is today accepted as ‘the most recognizable piece of antislavery paraphernalia the movement ever produced.’
