pincushion

Summary

1 of seven pincushions, see 6 other pincushions with same accession number. 7) Anti-slavery: small round knitted cushion opening with a silk hinge revealing 2 felt flaps for needles. Front and back motif of kneeling slave girl in chains. Back "am I not your sister?". The image of a kneeling shackled African man became an icon of the abolitionist movement in Britain in the late 18th century. It was used as the badge of the Slave Emancipation Society, most famously reproduced on small ceramic medallions by Josiah Wedgwood. Whilst it was intended to shame those who were involved in the slave trade, it also had the negative effect of representing the enslaved man as essentially passive. In fact, enslaved people repeatedly resisted oppression with courage, ingenuity and determination. The female maker of this pincushion gave the image a different perspective. It is usually accompanied by the words 'Am I not a man and a brother', but this object is inscribed 'Am I not your Sister' and shows a woman in chains. The role of women in the campaign to abolish slavery has not been fully acknowledged, but their contribution was considerable; through individual campaigners, the resistance of enslaved women and the activities of regional ladies' anti-slavery societies. Over a century before women got the vote, ladies' societies focused their activities on appealing to public opinion and domestic habits. The Manchester society distributed pamphlets in the 1820s, for example, encouraging fellow Mancunians to boycott slave-grown sugar. The prospect of women independently distributing political pamphlets and petitioning parliament was considered by some as a threat to society. Early feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft had made connections between slavery and the oppression of women in the 1790s. The reality is more complex; female abolitionists came from all social classes and held a wide range of views on their own position in society.