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Signet ring, with motto "Am I not a man and a brother?", not before 1787
- Title(s):
- Signet ring, with motto "Am I not a man and a brother?"
- Additional Title(s):
Am I not a man and a brother?
Anti-slavery medallion- Published/Created:
- England, not before 1787.
- Physical Description:
- 1 signet ring : gold with red stone (jasper?) ; face 28 x 21 mm, band 25 mm in diameter
- Holdings:
- Rare Books and ManuscriptsFlat D 2Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Susan M. Yecies, Yale BA 1971View by request in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Copyright Status:
- Copyright Not Evaluated
- Full Orbis Record:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/11968355
- Related Content:
- View catalog record for Clarkson's letter bearing the design of the anti-slavery medallion embossed in black wax.
View catalog record for a fob seal bearing the design of the anti-slavery medallion - Classification:
- Three-Dimensional Artifacts
- Notes:
- The anti-slavery medallion "was modelled by William Hackwood in 1787 for production in black on white jasper, and Wedgwood distributed it freely to those closely concerned with the cause of abolition. At the end of February 1788 Josiah sent a quantity of these cameos to Benjamin Franklin ..."--Reilly.
The Yale Center for British Art also has a letter from Thomas Clarkson to Thomas Middleditch, 1842 (?), bearing the design of the anti-slavery medallion, in slightly variant form, embossed in black wax. This item is cataloged separately (see link provided herewith).
Art and emancipation in Jamaica, p. 295
Bindman, D. "Am I not a man and a brother?: British art and slavery in the eighteenth century." In Res 26 (Autumn 1994), p. 68-82
Honour, H. Image of the black in Western art, p. 62-64
Reilly, R. Wedgwood, v. 1, p. 114-115
Signet ring for wax seal, depicting an enslaved man in shackles and motto that reads (in reverse): "Am I not a man and a brother?" The image is after a design by William Hackwood, for Josiah Wedgwood, and was adopted as the seal for the London Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787. The image and motto is engraved in red stone (jasper?), which is set in a simple gold ring. The ring bears no mark or inscription. - Subject Terms:
- Antislavery movements -- Great Britain.Black people in art.Clarkson, Thomas, 1760-1846.Slave trade -- Great Britain.Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
- Form/Genre:
- Rings (jewelry)
Signet rings. - Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-10-02 - 2014-12-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
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