In eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain, locally produced ceramics became a significant medium for both celebrating the economic advantages of slavery and denouncing its horrors. Founded in 1787, the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in England initiated a movement that led to the prohibition of the international slave trade in 1807. By the early nineteenth century, imagery on British ceramics related to enslavement and the slave trade had largely changed. Instead of celebrating the profits from the trade, designs began to explicitly condemn slavery and may have served a decorative purpose–to make a statement–rather than solely functioning as containers for sugar. Ceramics became a place where purchasing power became visibly political.

The sugar plates, bowls, and jugs that follow show how the debates surrounding abolition extended into the household. As women were largely excluded from political power in the public sphere, they found ways to exert influence through their consumer choices, creating a new market for abolitionist tableware that contrasted with earlier designs celebrating trade achievements. Some women, like abolitionist Elizabeth Heyrick, managed to make their views public. Frustrated by the slow progress of her contemporaries, Heyrick wrote the pamphlet “Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition” in 1824, advocating for the immediate end of slavery. While such pamphlets represented a step forward, the broader power of speech remained dominated by white elites, underscoring how Black voices continued to be largely silenced.