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Hailing from Anglesey, Thomas Williams (1737-1802) was, from 1785, chief agent of the Mynydd Parys copper mines near Amlwch. He also established numerous smelting works and a distribution network for shipping copper. A leading figure in the early Industrial Revolution, in 1790 he became MP for Great Marlow.

Having played a prominent role in the success of Wales’s Copper Industry and amassed great personal wealth, Williams commissioned this portrait of himself by Sir Thomas Lawrence, established as the leader portrait painter of Britain’s Regency era. This portrait depicts Williams at the height of his power during the 1790s and hung at his country seat in Berkshire.

Money from the Slave trade was vital in driving forward the Industrial Revolution and the copper industry, which in turn was able to grow the wealth of the white individuals and institutions who would reinvest this wealth in enslaving more Africans; an ever-expanding and entangled circle of excess and exploitation, which we are still trying to unravel ourselves from.

This work is included in the PITCH BLACK digital Black History tours of the National Museum Wales collections.