KS 3 & 4 themes
- Africa and the transatlantic slave trade
- Cotton and transatlantic slavery
- Local cotton industries in Greater Manchester
- The American Civil War and Lancashire cotton workers
- Freedom and human rights
- Campaigning for the abolition of slavery
- After abolition
- Legacies of transatlantic slavery: racism in Manchester
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Campaigning for the abolition of slavery
Token, 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother', 1787, People's History Museum
See this object at People's History Museum
This item may not always be on display, please check with the venue before visiting
This token was made in 1787 for the first anti-slavery organisation set up by Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson. It shows a chained African man, naked and kneeling, surrounded by the words ‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother’. The reverse has two hands joined in friendship.
The kneeling image and the motto ‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother’ became the symbols of the anti-slavery movement. The image was created by Josiah Wedgwood who was an abolitionist and also ran a pottery company. It showed enslaved Africans as passive as if they accepted slavery. Many enslaved Africans resisted slavery and escaped. They showed courage, ingenuity and determination to end slavery.
The symbol was copied on anti-slavery leaflets, and used to decorate medallions, men’s snuff and tobacco boxes, ladies’ bracelets and hair pins, as well as other everyday household ceramics including milk jugs, tea sets and sugar bowls, many of which were produced by Josiah Wedgwood’s pottery company.
This spread the anti-slavery message widely.
In Britain opinion was divided over the issue of slavery. The British state (including the royal family and the church) and many rich landowners and businessmen initially supported slavery. Their wealth depended on it. Many ordinary people, especially women, saw that it was against basic human rights and campaigned to bring it to an end. There was a lot of anti-slavery support in and around Greater Manchester. The British slave trade was made illegal in 1807.