In the 1830s, the drive to end colonial slavery coincided with widespread social discontent in Britain and demands for parliamentary reform and legislation to address the social problems associated with rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. This print illustrates the perceived hypocrisy of the anti-slavery campaign. To the right, a group of people appear to be happy despite their enslavement. In sharp contrast, to the left, a British family is burdened with taxation and poverty. The man standing in a barrel invites the viewer to consider the apparent paradox. 'Think of the poor suffering Affican [sic] called a Slave unpossess'd of any of the rights & privileges that you enjoy, while you sit under the vine of your Reform Bill and the fig-tree of your Magna Chart [sic]. He knows nothing of such blessings.'Robert Seymour
