Wedgwood Anti-Slavery Medallions
[subtitles in English and 한글 available]
BLACK LIVES MATTER ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼
In light of the global struggle for racial justice, this episode examines the iconic image of the kneeling slave on Wedgwood medallions used for the anti-slavery campaign since the 1780s in the Atlantic world.
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For Further Reading:
David Bindman, “Am I Not a Man and a Brother? British Art and Slavery in the Eighteenth Century,” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, no. 26 (1994), pp. 68-82.
Cheryl Finley, Committed to Memory: The Art of the Slave Ship Icon (Princeton University Press, 2018)
Marcus Wood, Blind Memory: Visual Representations of Slavery in England and America, 1780-1865 (Manchester University Press, 2000)
Mary Guyatt, “The Wedgwood Slave Medallion: Values in Eighteenth-Century Design,” Journal of Design History, vol. 13, no. 2 (2000): pp. 93-105
Image Credits
The George Floyd mural outside Cup Foods at Chicago Ave and E 38th St in Minneapolis, Minnesota / photo by Lorie Shaull / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
creativecommon...
Black Lives Matter / photo by Socialist Appeal / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
creativecommon...
Jasperware Anti-Slavery Medallion by Josiah Wedgwood, around 1787 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain - modified
George Townley Stubbs, after George Stubbs, Josiah Wedgwood, 1795 / Rijksmuseum / Public Domain - modified
Factory of Josiah Wedgwood, modeled by Anthony Keeling, Pair of Candlesticks, c. 1780 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Factory of Josiah Wedgwood, Urn with cover, modeled by Jan de Vaere, c. 1780-1800, with later base / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Title page of Letter to the Treasurer of the Society Institute for the Purpose of Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (London, 1788) / The British Library / digitized by Google / Public Domain
Voltaire, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, late 18th century / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain - modified
George Washington, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, c. 1800 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain - modified
George III, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, 1770-1800 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain - modified
Oliver Cromwell, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, 18th century / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain - modified
Wedgwood Manufactory, modeled by William Hackwood, Anti-Slavery Medallion, 1787 / Art Institute of Chicago / CC0 Public Domain
Anti-Slavery Medallion, Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, France, 1789 / Musée national Adrien Dubouché / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
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W. J. Morgan and Co., Slave Ship Engraving, 1808 / Gail and Stephen Rudin Slavery Collection, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library / Artstor / Public Domain
Benjamin Franklin, possibly by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, 1760-1883 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain - modified
Collection box of the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society owned by Garrison Family, 1830s-1850s / National Museum of African American History and Culture / CC0 Public Domain
Broadside publication of John Greenleaf Whittier’s antislavery poem, “Our Countrymen in Chains,” 1837 / Library of Congress / Public Domain
Claude Mellan, after Jacques Stella, Saint Bernard Kneeling before the Virgin and Child, 1640 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain - modified
Some members of the San Francisco 49ers kneel during the National Anthem before a game against the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field on October 15, 2017 in Landover, Maryland / photo by Keith Allison / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
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Raiders at Redskins 9/24/17 / photo by Keith Allison / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
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The crowd kneels at the Black Lives Matter protest in Washington DC 6/6/2/2 / photo by Clay Banks / Unsplash / Public Domain - modified
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Take a knee / photo by Gayatri Malhotra / Unsplash / Public Domain - modified
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George Floyd protests in Uptown Charlotte, 5/3/2020 / photo by Clay Banks / Unsplash / Public Domain - modified
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Untitled photo / photo by Cooper Baumgartner / Unsplash / Public Domain - modified
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Untitled photo / photo by Cooper Baumgartner / Unsplash / Public Domain - modified
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Black Lives Matter Protest in DC, 6/1/2020 / photo by Koshu Kunii / Unsplash / Public Domain - modified
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George Floyd protests in Uptown Charlotte, 5/3/2020 / photo by Clay Banks / Unsplash / Public Domain - modified
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#ArtStoryLab #Antislavery #Wedgwood #Abolitionism #ArtHistory
Пікірлер: 16
Good job tackling a tough subject. We need more open discussion about these important topics
Great video Hyejin! This medallion reminds me of the biscuit porcelain piece by Simon Louis Boizot created during the brief "abolition of slavery" in France in the 1790s, Moi égale à toi, Moi libre aussi (I am equal to you, I too am free), which I know others much more qualified than me have discussed before. Your video inspired me to think about the language Boizot used on his figurine and the subsequent inexpensive prints it inspired! The phrases included, written by white people but depicted as if it were the subject who says them, seem like an attempt to portray former slaves as equal to the white French with "safe" language meant to forge common ground (I'm a man/brother/equal to/just as free as you). Of course this makes sense in the context of 1790s "liberté, egalité, fraternité," but it also reminds me so much of the current "all lives matter" backlash in today's culture. These sorts of phrases pretend to erase difference and deny the rampant, glaring inequality still in place after the abolition of slavery in France in the 1790s (reversed in 1802 by Napoleon) or in the 21st century ("we're all brothers and sisters," "we are all human beings"-- a few statements from ALM supporters). Obviously sweeping statements of equality didn't work 200 years ago, so why some think they would work today is beyond me... Signed: a feminist who loves to stir trouble between men/destroy the patriarchy
@ArtStoryLab
4 жыл бұрын
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose 🙃 thank you for bring this up! Stay tuned for an episode on Boizot’s Moi Aussi Libre and the French side of this phenomenon! I LOVE suggestions from fellow troublemakers 😈
Thanks for this episode, Hyejin! I liked how you complicated the image of the medallion and put it in conversion with anti-racist movements going on today.
@ArtStoryLab
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you! 😘
Many thanks to Rayoung Song, who helped me with this episode. Check out her awesome channel, English for Feminists 👀👉🏻m.kzread.info/dron/DKdF5FE0C_Tf0HU_yNj4_A.html
Thank you for this.
this is AN AMAZING VIDEOOOO WOWWWWWW
@ArtStoryLab
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you for watching 😊
It was backed by action bu housewives who boycotted plantation Sugar meaning decreased sales for the plantation owners. It has bern called the biggest product boycot since the Boston Teapary
@ArtStoryLab
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you for sharing that!
@stephenqualtrough7322
3 жыл бұрын
@@ArtStoryLab They also used tactical voting for the first time ever to oust pro Slavery members of parliament out of office It got to the point where these people could not throw out anti Slavery legislation but simply seek to delay it for say a couple of years. All in all it was a bit of a revolution by the electorate using ballot boxes instead of bullets in the UK
its where “taking the knee from”
And if I may comment again what this speaker forgets as many many commentators do Ii that there were black Londoners involved with this such as Olaudah Equiano and Ignatius Sancho In the slightly more liberal atmosphere of England they were able to get published such as Ohlaydh Equiano aytobiography "nteresting Narative' giving a first hand account of being caught and put into slavery while in Africa and Sancho who was a friend of Laurence Stern givinh him influence and got out a book of collected Letters . Both books were huge bestsellers around the time of the American independence . They were prolific writers of lettes to the newspapers. Readers were getting it from the source as these men had been slaves but had gained their freedom. This post s OK but eeeds exopnding on to mention the black guys otherwise it is practising exclusion.iand racusntself The black guys astutely selected the correct people to go to such as Granvulle Sharp and William Wilberforce as well as being involved in the political process. It is racism itself to only include the white abolitionist side of it all. Ignatius was given the vote in 1774 and Olaudah became the richest black man in England and was able to vote because of the huge numbers of books he sold during his lifetime They were very pro active reporting slavery abuse to the appropriate campaignerscand were the REAL instigators behind much of this ( they brought the Zong slaveship to court when it committed atrocities on the slaves leading to their deaths. This generated much newspaper column.inches as the trial progressed The public were shocked and outraged as they read on and public distaste for the slave trade grew and grew. Wulliam Turner the great artist depicted the Xong wiyh drowning black peoples arms waving in the forefront as a protest