Discover the fascinating origins of the Statue of Liberty, conceived by Edourd de Laboulaye as a gift from France to honor the abolition of slavery and the contributions of Black soldiers during the Civil War.
The idea of the Statue of Liberty (Lady Liberty) came from Edourd de Laboulaye. He was a French historian and chairman of the French Anti-Slavery Society. He proposed to the French government that the people of France present a gift of the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States through the American Abolitionist Society. The gift was supposed to be in recognition of black soldiers who helped win the Civil War.
Laboulaye sought the assistance of the French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The original model of the Statue of Liberty had broken chains at her feet and broken shackles and chains in her left hand. Later the chains in her left hand were eliminated and replaced with a tablet, including the date of the Declaration of Independence inscribed “July IV, MDCCLXXVI” (July 4, 1776).
The face on the original Statue of Liberty was dark. The statue did not arrive in America until July 17, 1886, but the idea was conceived in 1865. This was during the end of the Civil War and the incorporation of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, marking the first time in American history that all of her law-abiding inhabitants were free. The Statue of Liberty was associated with the end of the Civil War, the 13th Amendment, the 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment, and the Reconstruction Era — the freedom from slavery for black Americans.
Some believe that Lady Liberty originally intended to commemorate the friendship between the U.S.A. and France over 100 years prior, during the Revolutionary War. Some believe that Lady Liberty represents the mass immigration of Europeans from Europe in the late 1800s. However, it was not until 1903 when Emma Lazarus’ poetic words, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” came to represent America’s safe-haven status for refugees and immigrants from overseas.
ust because people are tired or poor does not mean they are slaves who need to be liberated. It is a known fact that the Statue of Liberty idea came from abolitionists who were anti-slavery devotees; the freeing of black Americans was dear to their hearts. And the Statue of Liberty came to the United States through the American Abolitionist Society.
The Statue of Liberty in France was originally a black woman, and the first human model was black. Freedom in America started in 1776 but was not finalized until 1865. Liberty cannot be represented by the Declaration of Independence alone. It has to include the 13th Amendment and the final end of slavery for all law-abiding Americans. The Statue of Liberty came to America at the right time. It would have been sheer folly, even comical, to try and erect it before 1865 while slavery was still legalized.
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