Two Abolitionists Used Art and Mass Production to Protest Slavery

An article on DailyArt Magazine examines the protest art of two abolitionists: Josiah Wedgwood and Frederick Douglass. In 1787, the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, formed by outsider religious businessmen, created an emblem depicting a kneeling black man with the slogan "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" Quaker printer James Phillips printed thousands of tracts with the image, but it was Josiah Wedgwood who mass-produced the seal as a Jasperware medallion. Wedgwood, an English Quaker who industrialized pottery production, distributed the medallions freely. They became fashionable accessories in Georgian high society, worn on watch chains, hat pins, and jewelry. The medallion was just 3-4 cm wide and became the most widely circulated image of a black man at the time. However, Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery in 1838, was troubled by such images of supplication. He used photography to control his own portrayal, becoming the most photographed man of the 19th century. Douglass distributed his photos in letters, books, and speeches, presenting an image of dignity and aspiration. Both Wedgwood and Douglass leveraged new technologies and mass production to spread their protest messages, but one chose an image of suffering while the other chose an image of dignity.