Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Abolition of Slavery Medal

Preview image of work. bronze, Abolition of Slavery Medal 29328

2015.21

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Abolition of Slavery Medal

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Artist

Matthew Boulton (Mathew Boulton & Co.) (1728 – 1809)

Title

Abolition of Slavery Medal

Creation Date

1807

Century

early 19th century

Dimensions

1/8 x 1 3/8 in. (0.32 x 3.49 cm)

Classification

Medals/Plaquettes

Creation Place

Europe, United Kingdom

Medium and Support

bronze

Credit Line

Museum Purchase, Laura T. and John H. Halford, Jr. Art Acquisition Fund

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2015.21

Matthew Boulton, a friend of Josiah Wedgwood, created this bronze medal to commemorate the end of British involvement in the Atlantic slave trade with the inscriptions: “We Are All Brethren” and “Slave Trade Abolished / by Great Britain / 1807.” Centered in the foreground, a British man shakes the hand of an African man while others toil and dance amid huts and palm trees in the background. On the reverse, an Arabic inscription declares the end of the British slave trade as brought about by “Sultan” George III. The medal’s message of brotherhood is somewhat mi sleading, as the Slave Trade Act of 1807 only abolished the transatlantic commercial system and not the institution of slavery writ large, which was eventually outlawed in 1833 with the Slavery Abolition Act.

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