Bag: T.1-2022

Place(s) associated

• Birmingham ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought (2022) by Historical & Collectable The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum

Dating

Production date: circa AD 1830

Note

Please note that the term 'negro' was used historically to describe people of black African heritage but today it is considered offensive. It is used here in its original, historical context only. Although Britain’s participation in the slave trade officially ended in 1807, slavery continued across the colonies of the British Empire. In order to promote the abolition of it entirely, the Anti-Slavery Society was formed in 1823. While women were allowed to join the society, they could not form part of its leadership. In response to this, a group of activist women in West Bromwich, near Birmingham, formed their own group in 1825. Initially called the Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves, around 1830, the society changed its name to the Female Society for Birmingham. Other similar female campaign groups were founded across Britain in the late 1820s to demand the immediate and full abolition of slavery in the British colonies. Many of these groups produced objects decorated with abolitionist emblems, images and text, to decorate their homes, be worn in public to show allegiance and to be sold to raise funds for the cause. These bags were usually filled with abolitionist pamphlets and printed material. See separate catalogue entries for details. The image of the black enslaved mother with her child printed on the front of this bag was one of a series commissioned specifically by the Society from artist Samuel Lines, which was included in an album printed for the Society in 1825. Although these kinds of images were successful in encouraging engagement with the abolitionist cause in the short term, in the longer term, these illustrations of passive, enslaved people proved unhelpful in the wider struggle against racism. Various types of bags were produced by female anti-slavery sewing circles: silk reticules in the novel form of a ‘hand bag’ were intended for the more wealthy (see examples in Saffron Walden Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum), while much cheaper, simpler cotton bags (such as this one) were made for less wealthy women to buy.