African Americans have made extraordinary contributions to the history and culture of the United States as part of the nation and apart from it. This month, Auction Finds presents “28 days (Plus 1)” of this collaborative history. The additional day is intended to break Black history out of the stricture of a month into its rightful place as an equal partner in the history of America. Each day, I will offer artifacts culled from the auction tables and my research, along with the stories they hold.
Feb. 13, 2022
Female anti-slavery tokens
The female tokens of an enslaved African woman in chains were sold by women organizations to fund their anti-slavery campaigns. The image was borrowed from a medallion created in 1787 by renowned English potter Josiah Wedgwood as a symbol for abolitionists fighting the slave trade in Britain. His was made of the material of his famous pottery – Jasper (but in black and white) – and the human in bonds was a man and not a woman. An image of a Black man was also used on tokens.
The American Anti-Slavery Society issued the kneeling woman through its newspaper. The society enlisted a New Jersey company to strike the tokens, which were sold for $1 per 100. The society announced that it would also sell the male tokens, but that apparently was never done.
Among the members of the society was an African American man named Patrick H. Reason of New York, who in 1835 engraved a kneeling woman based on the Wedgwood figure. The society commissioned several pieces by him. No one seems to know who created the female image, but it apparently was first used in England in the early part of the 19th century. It appeared in print in the United States around 1830. Read the full story.
