PDFPrintE-mail

Great Britain: Abolition of the Slave Trade Halfpenny, Am I not a Man and a Brother?

Great Britain: Abolition of the Slave Trade Halfpenny, Am I not a Man and a Brother?Great Britain: Abolition of the Slave Trade Halfpenny, Am I not a Man and a Brother?
Form: Circular
By: After Josiah Wedgwood pottery
Date: c1795
Ref:  Laidlaw: 0501a;
Variations:
SizeMetalMassValue
29.3 mmCopper9.3 gm$150

Edge: Plain, milled with pattern or impressed edge lettering. This token: "PAYABLE AT LONDON LIVERPOOL OR BRISTOL".

Obverse: African male in loincloth chained hand and foot kneeling on one knee, right, hands raised in supplication. Legend: "AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER"

Reverse: Clasped hands across. Legend: "MAY SLAVERY & OPPRESSION CEASE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD". Rosette at the foot.

Notes: There are a number of similar halfpenny tokens recorded in Dalton & Hamer, Middlesex, Political & Social Series. This one is No. 1039b.

This token was produced to further the objectives of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The society was a British abolitionist group, formed on 22 May 1787, by twelve men in London, England. The most influential members were Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce and Josiah Wedgwood (whose pottery design of the manacled slave, which appears on this token, came to symbolise anti-slavery).

In 1807 the Slave Trade Act was passed by the British parliament abolishing the slave trade within the British Empire. This Act and the subsequent Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 which outlawed the ownership of slaves had major repercussions in South Africa.