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Am I Not a Man and a Brother?

LOC Title
Am I not a man and a brother?
LOC Summary
The large, bold woodcut image of a supplicant male slave in chains appears on the 1837 broadside publication of John Greenleaf Whittier's antislavery poem, "Our Countrymen in Chains." The design was originally adopted as the seal of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery in England in the 1780s, and appeared on several medallions for the society made by Josiah Wedgwood as early as 1787. Here, in addition to Whittier's poem, the appeal to conscience against slavery continues with two further quotes. The first is the scriptural warning, "He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. "Exod[us] XXI, 16." Next the claim, "England has 800,000 Slaves, and she has made them free. America has 2,250,000! and she holds them fast!!!!" The broadside is advertised at "Price Two Cents Single; or $1.00 per hundred.
LOC Contributor Names
American Anti-Slavery Society.
Anti-Slavery Office (New York, N.Y,)
LOC Created/Published
1837
LOC Standardized Date
1837
LOC Subject Headings
Whittier, John Greenleaf,--1807-1892
- Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominions--1830-1840
- African Americans--1830-1840
- Abolition movement--1830-1840
- Slavery--1830-1840
LOC Notes
N.Y. sold at the Anti-Slavery Office, 144 Nassau St. 1837.
- Title appears as it is written on the item.
- Wedgwood Portraits and the American Revolution, p. 116-117.
- Reference copy in: LOT 4422-A.
- Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1837-16.
EEC Source Year
1837
EEC Format
EEC Type of Source
EEC Index Number
242
EEC Topics