When visiting, foreigners get a glimpse of the exceptional and glorious promise of America for ourselves and our posterity when they see the colossal Statue in the bay.
In 1903, a bronze plaque placed on the inner walls of the Statue’s pedestal honored a poem titled "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus written in 1883. It was due to the fact that the pedestal had been paid for from donations based on Emma Lazarus poem.
The words of the poem are often misunderstood.
Lady Liberty as the statue is called, is all about freedom from slavery, and by extension all forms of slavery including, but not limited to, government oppression, force, mandates, threats and injustices.
Read the words of the poem in that light. “Give freedom your tired, your poor caused by oppression. Your huddled masses yearning to be free, The wretched refuse of freedom’s teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, to freedom, I lift freedom’s lamp beside the golden door to freedom.”
Here’s the original text:
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Lady Liberty is not about immigrants or immigration. For the obvious, it’s unlikely donations for the pedestal of any statue would have been offered to support migration from France. That would have been viewed as a betrayal of their country.
Brief History of the Status of Liberty
History tells the story. The America people’s commitment to abolish slavery and by extension all forms of captivity through force, false imprisonment, injustice, including, but not limited to, government oppression, mandates, lock downs, threats and tyranny over a nation’s people.
1863 Édouard de Laboulaye, an antislavery activist, was the brainchild of the Statue of Liberty.
Laboulaye celebrated U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, as well, as the abolition of slavery after the 1861-1865 Civil War. He believed the “statue” could strengthen France’s ideals.
According to the American Battlefield Trust, “What we must remember that British interests dictated many things, and slavery was one component.”
It’s probable that Laboulay saw America freeing the slaves as an example. Lady Liberty had to be colossal to make a gigantic statement people would take notice of and remember.
1879 Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a young French sculptor, had been experimenting with large-scale works. He originally intended to build a lighthouse in Egypt, but changed his plan when Egypt could not afford it.
He eagerly supported Laboulaye’s idea of a statue and began drawing up designs. The final design was patented and construction began soon thereafter.
Bartholdi’s design was colossal – bigger, in fact, than any other sculpture in the world at that time.
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel who designed the Eiffel Tower, designed the statue’s skeletal framework. Eiffel’s structural-engineering expertise was paramount to keeping the statue upright and secure; the iron interior would bearthe enormous weight of 450,000 pounds (200,000 kilograms) while still allowing the 100 US tons of exterior copper to move independently.
A poem called "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus was written in 1883 to help raise money for the statue’s pedestal. The poem depicts the statue’s purpose to support freedom against slavery order to gain donations.
The Statue was under construction in Paris circa 1884 and found her home in the waters of New York Bay on Liberty Island in 1886.
The Statue of Liberty reminds us to protect our freedom. ///