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Enslaved man, standing, hands clasp and eyes looking upwards in prayer, with caption below: ‘O my great massa in heaven, pity me, and bless my children!’: PM.4-2022

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Enslaved man, standing, hands clasp and eyes looking upwards in prayer, with caption below: ‘O my great massa in heaven, pity me, and bless my children!’

Maker(s)

Printmaker: Unknown
Draughtsman: Lines, Samuel (Attrib.)

Entities

Categories

Description

Part of the contents of the work-bag (T.1-2022) produced by the Female Society for Birmingham (originally called the Ladies Society for the Relief of N---- Slaves) in West Bromwich, near Birmingham, as part of their campaign to abolish slavery.

Please note that the term 'n----' 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.

Notes

History note: Historical and Collectable online auction: ‘Commemoratives, Fairings, Stevengraphs, Staffordshire Pot Lids and Prattware’ on Tuesday 18 October 2022 (lot 76), from where purchased

Legal notes

Given by the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum, 2022

Measurements and weight

Height: 257 mm
Width: 209 mm

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

19th Century
Production date: c. AD 1828

Note

Lines was commissioned to design prints for the Society for use in their campaigning.

School or Style

British

Techniques used in production

Engraving
Etching

Identification numbers

Accession number: PM.4-2022
Primary reference Number: 317565
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 13 August 2024 Updated: Tuesday 25 November 2025 Last processed: Tuesday 25 November 2025

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Manuscripts and Printed Books

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Enslaved man, standing, hands clasp and eyes looking upwards in prayer, with caption below: ‘O my great massa in heaven, pity me, and bless my children!’" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/317565 Accessed: 2025-12-05 06:31:54

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/317565 |title=Enslaved man, standing, hands clasp and eyes looking upwards in prayer, with caption below: ‘O my great massa in heaven, pity me, and bless my children!’ |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 06:31:54|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-317565

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