International Campaign
The Wedgwood Medallion, 1787 (reference: Belper Library, RB/85)
Josiah Wedgwood lived in Stoke-on-Trent (The Potteries) in the West Midlands. His company manufactured a wide range of decorative china.
Wedgwood was also a leading anti-slavery campaigner. In 1787 he produced a slave medallion inscribed with the words 'Am I Not A Man And A Brother'. The medallion was designed to adorn brooches and other fashionable items in order to promote the abolitionist cause. Some were sent to Benjamin Franklin, President of the Abolition Society in America.
Although Wedgwood was not connected to Nottinghamshire, his medallion, distributed in its thousands, became a widespread international symbol of the abolition movement and appears in records and printed books across the country. The medallion appears in an early printed book in Nottinghamshire Archives' reference library.
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