[ABOLITION MEDAL.]

Proposal for publishing by subscription, an appropriate medal, in commemoration of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

CELEBRATING ABOLITION

Letterpress handbill. 8vo (225 by 145mm). Faint old folds, four lines of contemporary ms notes in ink to verso, but very good. [London], Topping, Printer, Playhouse-yard, Blackfriars, n.d. [but, 1807.

£2,500.00

A rare survival of one of the most significant mementos celebrating the passing of The Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807.

“Some gentlemen, who, with thousands of their countrymen have exulted at the ‘greatest of all the Acts of the British Legislature’, THE ACT FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE; and who are convinced of the propriety of commemorating so important an event, and, at the same time, of hearing honourable testimony to the long, unwearied, and successful labours of the philanthropic WILBERFORCE; take an early opportunity of informing the public in general, and the Friends of this glorious cause in particular, that they have engaged several artists of the first eminence for the above purpose; that an appropriate design by Mr Smirke, R.A. is already made; and that dies have for some time been engraving, which will be executed in the best manner …”

The medal was engraved by Thomas Webb and bore an image of Britannia seated on a dais, attended by Mercury, Prudence and Justice, and crowned by Victory. Beneath that is cast: “I Have Heard Their Cry / Slave Trade Abolished MDCCCVII”. On the verso is a portrait of William Wilberforce reading “William Wilberforce MP the Friend of Africa.”

This medal is different from the medal commissioned by Zachary Macaulay bearing the slogan “We are all Brethren” with an Arabic inscription on the verso that was made for distribution in Sierra Leone. Others were made in variations on the same theme and “[a]mong the examples in the British Museum, several have small holes, indicating perhaps that a loop or clasp was originally attached to the rim, or perhaps that they were suspended by a piece of ribbon or braid. Others were more likely to have been collectors’ items and kept in purpose-built boxes or display cabinets. Not only did these medals commemorate the abolition of the slave trade; they were also a form of self-advertisement. There were a means of identifying, individually and collectively, with a noble, humanitarian cause” (Oldfield).

In addition to this handbill, notices of the medal were published in newspapers around Britain, such as those in York on 8 October 1807.

Not on OCLC, not on Library Hub, not in BL.

Oldfield, J.R., Popular Politics and British Anti-Slavery … (Routledge, 2008) p.162; Sheppard, T., “An Interesting Yorkshire Medal” in Yorkshire Notes and Queries … Vol. 4, No. 8 (November, 1907), p.174.

Stock No.
246193