THIS bronze token is one of more than 3,000 objects in the Worcester City Numismatic collection which includes coins, banknotes, and medals. Made in Birmingham in around 1795, it bears the powerful image of an enslaved African man, bound in chains and pleading with the reader: ‘Am I not a man and a brother?’ When this token was made, Britain was a leading power in the transatlantic slave trade, transporting more than 32,000 enslaved people to America and the Caribbean each year. This horrific trade was deeply controversial and by the late18th century thousands of people across Britain were campaigning for its abolition.
By Irina Sedunova 7 May 2021
Luminous and fragile, amber has long inspired reverence. Protected by Prussian law starting in the 13th Century, the fossilised resin was a sought-after substance for crafting royal and religious objects throughout Eastern Europe. The Amber Room, a series of panels crafted from six tonnes of amber mounted on gold-leaf walls and adorned with mosaics and mirrors, was a paean to the material’s beauty and status.
Designed for royalty in Prussia and Russia, lost to war in Germany and eventually reborn in a St Petersburg palace, the room remains a mystery as captivating as amber itself.
Editor’s Note “Broad early modern comparative projects often fail to address Africa at all. A search of the MLAIB [Modern Language Association International Bibliography] finds that the number of pieces published in the last thirty years on the subject of ‘globalization’ is in the thousands, and yet only 5 per cent of them address Africa or African countries. When it comes to eighteenth-century studies, the exclusion is total: not one of the pieces on globalization addresses Africa or African countries. Not one. … This is more than unfortunate. No arena of study can be successful that has Africa as a lacuna. ” Wendy Laura Belcher
Editor s Note
Broad early modern comparative projects often fail to address Africa
at all. A search of the MLAIB [Modern Language Association
International Bibliography] finds that the number of pieces published
in the last thirty years on the subject of globalization is in the
thousands, and yet only 5 per cent of them address Africa or African
countries. When it comes to eighteenth-century studies, the exclusion
is total: not one of the pieces on globalization addresses Africa or
African countries. Not one. This is more than unfortunate. No
arena of study can be successful that has Africa as a lacuna.
Wendy Laura Belcher