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Wednesday 7 March 2012

Am I Not Your Sister? Manchester Art Gallery

Occasionally we are lucky to see a pinball showing the abolitionist emblem of the chained kneeling slave. This extremely rare pinball in the Manchester Art Gallery collection presents a chained woman. Normally the device has the text of Am I not a man and a brother? How much rarer is this with Am I Not Your Sister? The text of Manchester Art Gallery informs us: 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.
To see the item for yourself, click here.

3 comments:

  1. What a poignant witness of those times - thank you for showing it!

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  2. Thank you for sharing this Amazing treasure with your needlework "sisters". Ann

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  3. Totally applied to Woman's Day! We still have a long way to go!
    Happy Day!
    hugs

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