Description:
This small mug perhaps meant for a child expressed in material form the growing horror at the barbarous practices of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the premises upon which that trade thrived. This image of a kneeling enslaved African became the emblem for the British Anti-Slavery movement carried forward by Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, leading to Parliament’s abolition of the slave trade in 1807. By 1807, and before the abolition of slavery in all the British colonies in 1838, many versions of the kneeling slave found their way onto the surface of artifacts made in ceramic, metal, glass and fabric. Cylindrical shaped miniature mug decorated with gilding on the rim, base, and handle, and a transfer print of an enslaved African man in shackles and chains, he is partially clothed and kneeling on one knee, with his hands joined together as in prayer and supplication, there are two plam trees in the background.
Tags:
slavery; enslaved persons; antislavery movements Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2019.54.3 |
