William Blake

The artist Blake was an engraver who had a calling as a divinely inspired poet and prophet. He developed an integrated method of engraving copper plates with words and images. His visionary illuminated works include Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793) and Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794) which contains 'Tyger ! Tyger ! burning bright'. Blake's work later became highly symbolic and complex.

A passionate believer in racial and sexual equality, Blake used his poetry and art to protest against many different forms of mental, physical and economic enslavement. He also created several memorable and specific anti-slavery and pro-abolition images and poems, including The Little Black Boy which was written in 1788 just a year after The Committee for the Effecting of the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded. In this poem, Blake describes how a young black boy becomes the equal of his white counterpart in God's heaven, where colour is irrelevant. Blake's images are more disturbing and show the cruel punishments meted out by white plantation owners.

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