Feb 26, 2004 - Sale 1998

Sale 1998 - Lot 44

Unsold
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(Commemorative Medallion). General Anti-Slavery Convention Held in London 1840. President, Thomas Clarkson, aged 81. British & Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Silver-plated pewter medal with a portrait of Clarkson on one side and on the other the noted image of the kneeling slave with the caption, "Am I not a Man and a Brother?" 2 inches in diameter; slightly rubbed; Signed B. R. Haydon. Birmingham: Davis, 1840

Additional Details



A memento of an extraordinary event. The London General Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 was to include "delegates from all anti-slavery organizations." But when the male organizers discovered that some of the American delegates were women, a crisis ensued. Wendell Phillips argued eloquently for the women as did some English delegates. William Lloyd Garrison arrived too late to add his voice. In the end, the women were excluded. In protest, Garrison refused to take his seat and sat out the ten-day convention. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, two of the would-be female delegates, decided to hold a women's convention when they returned home. But it wasn't until 1848 that one was convened, and its scope went far beyond just slavery. The Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls gave birth to the woman suffrage movement.