2023-03 HCA Auctions
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/7/2023
The simple cast-iron box, 3-5/8" W x 5-5/8"L x 3-5/8"T, has a lift-off cover depicting the relief cast chained kneeling figure that became a symbol of the abolition movement and is titled simply "Humanity". There is a degree of cruel irony in these objects, many of them made c.1810 as fund-raisers by the Millfield Iron Works, near Wolverhampton. Tobacco itself was a slave-grown crop. Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), a dedicated abolitionist and close friend of Thomas Clarkson designed the "logo" of the kneeling captive for the Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1787. This was taken up by the American abolitionists, and in 1835 Patrick Reason, a young black engraver created a version of a kneeling woman that bore the caption "Am I not a Woman and a Sister?"
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