The provenance of the group of shackles (M1185, M1194, M1195 and M1196) in Soane's collection is unknown. They must have been in the Museum by c.1834-35 because they are described in Soane's Description of 1835 as 'implements of iron, to the honour of humanity no longer in use'. Entries in the manuscript inventories drafted before his death prove that he knew the shackles were associated with the enslavement of African people. This one is described in the 1837 inventories as 'A coupling collar. Iron'.

There is evidence that John Soane supported Emancipation. His Library contains pro-Emancipation pamphlets and he was very friendly with the Thornton family, for whom he worked at Moggerhanger and other houses, who were cousins of William Wilberforce, a leader of the campaign for the abolition of the trade in enslaved people. Above all the text of the Description indicates that he intended his display of these barbaric objects to commemorate the moment of abolition, highlighting the fact that they were no longer in use.

It is possible that the display of the shackles in the basement of Soane's Museum might have been intended to evoke in the minds of contemporary visitors recollections of the shackles which hung above the main entrance to Newgate gaol, designed by his first architectural teacher, George Dance the younger.

Sir John Soane, Description, 1835, p.32

M1196, another similar
M1195, another similar
M1194, another similar
M1185, another similar
M1184, another similar