The Iconoclasts Have It All Wrong. The Emancipation Memorial Shows A Man ‘In The Act Of Getting Up’ For ‘His Freedom’

Under fire from ignorant iconoclasts, the Emancipation Memorial shows a former slave 'exerting his own strength with strained muscles in breaking the chain which had bound him.'

Black Lives Matter Protesters have threatened to tear down the Emancipation Memorial in Washington. District of Columbia Delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton also called for the “problematic” statue’s removal from Lincoln Park, alleging the statue fails to note how enslaved African Americans pushed for their emancipation. Norton said former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass “expressed his displeasure” at its unveiling.

In truth, Frederick Douglass predicted members of his race looking back at its dedication in the distant future “will think of it and speak of it with a sense of manly pride.” On April 14, 1876, the 11th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination, Douglass delivered the keynote address at the unveiling of this memorial. President Grant, senators, cabinet members, and Supreme Court justices attended the ceremony. Douglass proclaimed:

Charlotte Scott was a former slave, freed by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. When she heard that President Lincoln had been assassinated, Scott stated, “The colored people have lost their best friend on earth! Mr. Lincoln was our best friend, and I will give five dollars of my wages towards erecting a monument to his memory.”

Her contribution sparked a movement for freed slaves to raise money to erect a memorial to Lincoln. The monument drive came to the attention of the Western Sanitary Commission, which cared for the Civil War’s refugees in the western states, including wounded soldiers, widows, orphans, and freed slaves. The commission spread the word, and thousands of contributions poured in from former slaves — many of them former soldiers who had proudly served in the Union Army. The tally from these donations totaled more than $12,000.

Sculptor Thomas Ball’s original marble version of the memorial represented the kneeling slave as passive, simply receiving the boon of freedom from the hand of the great liberator. James Yeatman, President of the Western Sanitary Commission, objected.

So “the artist changed this, to bring the presentation nearer to the historical fact, by making the emancipated slave an agent in his own deliverance.” The former slave was “accordingly represented as exerting his own strength with strained muscles in breaking the chain which had bound him. A far greater degree of dignity and vigor, as well as of historical accuracy, is thus imparted.”

The original was also changed by introducing, instead of an anonymous slave, the figure of a living man — the last slave in Missouri taken up under the fugitive-slave law, and who was, at one time, rescued from his captors. That man’s name was Archer Alexander.

The bronze version of the Emancipation Memorial that sits in Lincoln Park not only pays tribute to the standing figure of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator. It also honors the heroic figure of Archer Alexander, breaking his chains and rising from his knees.

Yet recently, a man named Tory Bullock started an online petition for the statue’s removal, which has garnered thousands of signatures. “I’ve been watching this man on his knees since I was a kid,” Bullock states in the petition’s description. “It’s supposed to represent freedom but instead represents us still beneath someone else. I would always ask myself ‘If he’s free why is he still on his knees?’ No kid should have to ask themselves that question anymore.”

The best answer comes from Marcia Cole, a member of the Female Re-Enactors of Distinction of the African American Civil War Museum who portrays Charlotte Scott. “I understand there’s a big campaign trying to raise money to either take it down or mend it, and I say ‘no’ on behalf of Ms. Charlotte,” she told ABC7 News in Washington. “People tend to think of that figure as being servile, but on second look you will see something different, perhaps. That man is not kneeling on two knees with his head bowed. He is in the act of getting up. And his head is up, not bowed because he’s looking forward to a future of freedom.”

Norton, Bullock, and other descendants of slaves in America are no longer in bondage because of the great Americans, black and white, who fought a bloody Civil War and abolished slavery. We should all be grateful to Lincoln for the Emancipation Proclamation, for preserving the Union, and for ending slavery. And we should be just as grateful to Archer Alexander and all those he represents who broke their chains, raised their heads high, and stood tall so all men may breathe free!

"The subject of Abraham Lincoln's "Lyceum" speech was citizenship in a democratic republic and threats to American institutions. In the speech, Lincoln discussed in glowing terms the political system established by the founding fathers, but warned of a destructive force from within. He asked his listeners:

'Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.'- Abraham Lincoln, "Lyceum" Speech

Lincoln then warned that a tyrant could overtake the American political system from within. He said:

'It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion as others have done before them. The question then is, Can that gratification be found in supporting and maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found whose ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? Never! Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And when such an one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs. Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down.'- Abraham Lincoln, "Lyceum" Speech

Thanks for your post, What loveliberty2 quoted from Loncln can =be summed up in a few words that i have believed since I thought this over in my teens, 65 years ago:

"Democracy bears within itself the seeds of its own destruction."

That's it. I've been wary of it all my life. I have never trusted the intentions of a politician. Lincoln was a great man to observe and warn his fellow-citizens, especially the ones "being freed," of the ones graduating to the culture of being truly accountable for one's own deeds. Being freed from one's own ignorance and superstions and gullibility and sinfulness are chains that no one else can free you from.

Only Jesus Christ can do that. And He must be recognized as Lord and Master in the process. Not yourself.

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