On Friday 11th September 1846, the celebrated orator and former slave Frederick Douglass addressed an audience of 800 people at the old Quaker Meeting House in Sheffield, dispelling the assumption that slavery had been ended by the Act of 1834.

His autobiographical writings were pivotal to the abolition of slavery as they educated people worldwide and inspired them to take action. The following day he visited Mary Anne Rawson, leader of the Sheffield Female Anti-Slavery Society at Wincobank Hall.

Mary Anne Rawson (1801-1887) was born at Green Lane, Kelham Island in 1801, then lived at Royds Mill until 1816 when her family moved to Wincobank where she founded a school, now known as Upper Wincobank Chapel. With her mother and sisters she distributed pamphlets and made house to house visits, successfully persuading 75% of Sheffield women to boycott sugar and coffee produced by slave labour in the West Indies.

Inspired through her conversations with many radical and forward thinking people, she was a life-long campaigner for the immediate and universal abolition of slavery and for education for all. She is buried in Zion Graveyard, Attercliffe. The Cutlery Works has commissioned this mural by the artist Katy Sett. The mural will become part of the Kelham Island Arts and Heritage trail which seeks among other things to highlight the many historical aspects of Kelham Island and Neepsend. It follows another commissioned work 'Red Don' by Simon Wigglesworth-Baker which can be found on the telecom box outside the Cutlery Works.