The name of the statue is “Freedom”
On this day in 1863, the statue atop the U.S. Capitol was hoisted into place. Among the onlookers was the African-American who made it, Philip Reid. Mr. Reid had been a slave until freed by the Republican Party’s DC Emancipation Act. This law to free the 3,100 slaves in the nation’s capital was written by Senator Henry Wilson (R-MA) and signed by President Abraham Lincoln (R-IL). Every Democrat in Congress voted against it.
Grand Old Partisan has today’s forgotten story.