Images(8)

Tobacco Box

Date1800-1840

Maker Coalbrookdale Co. (British, 1709 - 1969)

OriginEngland, Shropshire (probably)

MediumIron

DimensionsOH: 3 ½ in; OD: 5 3/8 in; OW: 3 ½ in. (with lid in place)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2017-294,A&B

DescriptionRectangular cast iron box on four small rectangular feet; with removable rectangular cast iron lid with beaded edge and relief-cast image of a kneeling slave above the word “HUMANITY”
Label TextIn the late 18th century, British manufacturers began to make objects promoting the abolition of slavery. Among the earliest and best known was the ceramic medallion produced by Josiah Wedgwood depicting a chained slave, surrounded by the phrase “AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER.” First introduced in 1787, the imagery of Wedgwood’s medallion soon was incorporated, with and without modifications, into an array of anti-slavery items including printed pamphlets, ceramic sugar bowls, cloth purses, and cast iron boxes.
This box, cast with the word “HUMANITY” beneath a kneeling man shackled at wrists and ankles, was probably made at England’s largest ironworks in Shropshire during the early decades of the nineteenth century. A similar example survives in the Hull Museum with its original internal presser—used to keep the tobacco fresh—bearing the name Coalbrook Dale Co. Since tobacco cultivation was dependent on slave labor, the use of this imagery on the lid of this cast iron box was a compelling reminder of the human trafficking that the abolitionist movements in both England and America sought to eradicate.