Josiah Wedgwood was a tycoon. He had stock in one of the biggest markets in Britain. He developed one of the most successful fashion trends ever. In fact, his label was all over clothes and jewelry. By the way, he lived 200 years ago.
Josiah Wedgwood started out as a simple potter, earning his living as a thrower (someone who makes pottery with a potting wheel). But before he could really master his craft, he got a terrible case of smallpox, which led to the amputation of one of his legs. Throwing was a physically demanding job in which you had to pump the pedal that turned the disk the clay sat on. After losing one of his legs, Wedgwood could no longer throw pottery. But Josiah Wedgwood wasn’t one to give up.
Instead, he focused on designing pottery and jewelry, and practiced a form of pottery that did not involve a potter’s wheel. He experimented with glazes and formulas until he developed a beautiful cream-colored pottery that was extremely popular, mainly because Queen Charlotte loved it. That was probably why the pottery was dubbed “Queen’s Ware.” I guess things weren’t much different from the way they are today—if someone really famous loves a product, then others will buy it. Eventually, Wedgwood became very rich and influential.
One of Wedgwood’s friends was Thomas Clarkson, one of the main abolitionists of his time. Clarkson encouraged Wedgwood to use his influence by taking a stand on the controversial issue of the slave trade, and he did. Josiah Wedgwood came out with a popular jewelry piece called the slave medallion. It had an African slave in shackles saying, “Am I not a man and a brother?”
This piece spread like wildfire. In no time, people were buying all sorts of jewelry and other items—snuff boxes, hat pins, brooches— all with the slave medallion on them. It was the label everyone was wearing—kind of like today’s “Live Strong” bracelet; except the slave medallion was bigger, much bigger. It became so popular, and had so many uses that Thomas Clarkson noted, “Ladies wore them in bracelets, and others fitted them up in an ornamental manner as pins for their hair. At length the taste for wearing them became general, and thus fashion, which usually confines itself to worthless things, was seen once in the honorable office of promoting the cause of justice, humanity, and freedom.”
Wedgwood continued in his support of the anti-slavery movement, even though this could have cost him his business and popularity. But he was committed to the cause of abolition and spoke up anyway. Ironically, he actually ended up richer than before. Josiah Wedgwood died before he could witness the abolition of the slave trade in his homeland. But he set the standard for using a brand to do good.