Josiah Wedgwood

Josiah Wedgwood's medallion, 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother?', 1787. "Although the kneeling black figure is docile and supplicatory (reflecting nothing of the frequent fierce rebellions by enslaved people in the New World plantations), the image nonetheless helped to galvanise support for the abolitionist cause. Benjamin Franklin declared that the medallion's effectiveness was 'equal to that of the best written Pamphlet, in procuring favour to those oppressed People.' " (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africans_in_art_gallery_02.shtml).

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