Abstract

 
 
 Josiah Wedgwood’s design for the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade is primarily an artifact of a past politics of inclusion that literally required the posing of the question “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” for the sake of Africans’ shared basis in humanity. With its loinclothed kneeling slave in manacles and pathetic appeal, it is a rather disturbing example of how images can both encourage and curtail the expansion of socially democratic principles. And yet, if we were to extrapolate from the form and content of Wedgwood’s emblem, a rich legacy of influence emerges across two centuries of black protest. Through an assessment of performative declarations and appeals that amount to a cross-disciplinary continuation of the “Negro Question,” this essay will outline the epistemological continuity that binds our current categorical regard for black humanity with its less-than-ideal origins.
 
 
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