Title
Teapot
Label
Teapot
Made in Staffordshire, England, 1775-1780
Made of Creamware
Height 5.20"
On Loan from the Winterthur Museum, Gift of S. Robert Teitelman
One of the earliest calls for the abolition of slavery decorates this teapot. The lines appeared in a poem as early as 1717 and remained a popular toast well into the 1800s. They were even heard, ironically enough, on Southern plantations. [iii]
That this message is on a teapot is not coincidental; drinking tea was an important social ritual in the 1700s and 1800s, especially for women. The tea table, around which people gathered for companionship and conversation, was an opportunity for voicing anti-slavery sentiments. One early anti-slavery poem by William Cowper titled “The Negro’s Complaint: A Subject for Conversation and Reflection at the Tea Table.”[iv]
Made in Staffordshire, England, 1775-1780
Made of Creamware
Height 5.20"
On Loan from the Winterthur Museum, Gift of S. Robert Teitelman
One of the earliest calls for the abolition of slavery decorates this teapot. The lines appeared in a poem as early as 1717 and remained a popular toast well into the 1800s. They were even heard, ironically enough, on Southern plantations. [iii]
That this message is on a teapot is not coincidental; drinking tea was an important social ritual in the 1700s and 1800s, especially for women. The tea table, around which people gathered for companionship and conversation, was an opportunity for voicing anti-slavery sentiments. One early anti-slavery poem by William Cowper titled “The Negro’s Complaint: A Subject for Conversation and Reflection at the Tea Table.”[iv]
Credit Line
Courtesy, Winterthur Museum, Gift of S. Robert Teitelman, 2009.21.15
Citation
“Teapot,” Museums at Washington and Lee University: Online Exhibits, accessed May 17, 2024, https://exhibits-museums.omeka.wlu.edu/items/show/15.