| THE STATUE OF LIBERTY WEARS SHACKLES?!!
WHAT ELSE DON’T WE KNOW? |
| For over a hundred and twenty years the Statue of Liberty has greeted immigrants to these shores with open arms and the promise of a freedom that they had never known before. As a result, that towering, stately, and majestic lady has come to represent the quintessential symbol of freedom, liberty, and justice for people all over the world. Just the sight of her brought hope and inspiration to millions of European immigrants as they entered New York Harbor, and that initial vision sustained them as they started their new lives in America.
The scene must have seemed surreal as their boats slowly moved past her in the harbor; and oceans of tears must have flowed as the immigrants stared in awe at this magnificent lady. In her right hand she held the burning flame of passion and enlightenment--outstretched and high, as though reaching for the very face of God; In her left she held the tablet that represents the rule of law, and the guarantee of equal justice for all; and on the pedestal in which she stood, were the words that had inspired their very journey. It said, . . . “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse to your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” That’s an accurate portrayal of a scene that must have played out thousands of times. It’s the stuff that movies are made of—but like most movies, there’s an ugly and ironic subplot churning beneath the surface. The irony is, now the grandchildren of some of those very same immigrants—those indigent immigrants--that Lady Liberty welcomed into this country with open arms, are using voting fraud, unfair labor practices, redlining, and just flat-out discrimination to undermine the very people that we now know the statue was originally created to embrace. As a child in school I was taught that the idea the Statue of Liberty was conceived by a Frenchman, Edouard Laboulaye, as a monument to the collaboration and friendship of the United States and France during the Revolutionary war, and sculpted by sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. But at the urging of one of our readers I revisited the issue, and did a little research. It turns out that Laboulaye did indeed conceive of the Statue of Liberty, but not as a monument to the Revolutionary War. The Statue of Liberty was conceived as a monument to the end of slavery, and to honor those men, women and children who had been enslaved. Laboulaye conceived of the Statue of Liberty in 1865. That was a hundred years after the Revolutionary War, but it just happened to be the very year that the Civil War came to an end. It also turns out that Laboulaye wasn’t just any Frenchman—he was not only an abolitionist who had dedicated his entire life to the abolishment of slavery, he was a leader of the French abolitionist movement. And further, the sculptor who actually created the Statue of Liberty, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, is thought to have been connected with the abolitionist movement as well. |