Liberty Bell Clip Art United States Black and White Flag

Recognizable for its crack, the Liberty Bong remains significant today for its message of liberty.

NPS photo

The Liberty Bell bears a timeless message: "Proclaim Freedom Throughout All the State Unto All the Inhabitants thereof"

Become beyond the iconic fissure to acquire how this State Business firm bong was transformed into an extraordinary symbol. Abolitionists, women's suffrage advocates and Civil Rights leaders took inspiration from the inscription on this bell. Programme your visit to the Liberty Bong Center to allow time to view the exhibits, meet the moving picture, and gaze upon the famous croaky bell. No tickets are required and hours vary seasonally.

From Signal to Symbol
The Country House bell, now known as the Liberty Bong, rang in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House. Today, we call that building Independence Hall. Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly Isaac Norris commencement ordered a bell for the bell tower in 1751 from the Whitechapel Foundry in London. That bell croaky on the outset exam band. Local metalworkers John Pass and John Stow melted downwards that bong and cast a new one correct hither in Philadelphia. It's this bell that would ring to call lawmakers to their meetings and the townspeople together to hear the reading of the news. Benjamin Franklin wrote to Catherine Ray in 1755, "Adieu, the Bell rings, and I must go among the Grave ones and talk Politicks." It'due south not until the 1830's that the sometime State House bell would brainstorm to take on significance as a symbol of liberty.

The Crack
No i recorded when or why the Liberty Bell commencement croaky, simply the most likely explanation is that a narrow split developed in the early 1840'southward subsequently almost 90 years of hard use. In 1846, when the city decided to repair the bell prior to George Washington'due south birthday vacation (February 23), metal workers widened the thin cleft to prevent its farther spread and restore the tone of the bell using a technique called "stop drilling". The wide "crack" in the Liberty Bell is actually the repair job! Expect carefully and you'll see over forty drill bit marks in that wide "crevice". Simply, the repair was not successful. The Public Ledger paper reported that the repair failed when some other crack developed. This second crack, running from the abbreviation for "Philadelphia" up through the word "Liberty", silenced the bell forever. No i living today has heard the bell ring freely with its clapper, merely computer modeling provides some clues into the audio of the Freedom Bell.

The Inscription
The Liberty Bell's inscription is from the Bible (King James version): "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the State Unto All the Inhabitants thereof." This verse refers to the "Jubilee", or the instructions to the Israelites to render property and free slaves every 50 years. Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly Isaac Norris chose this inscription for the State House bell in 1751, possibly to commemorate the 50th anniversary of William Penn's 1701 Charter of Privileges which granted religious liberties and political self-government to the people of Pennsylvania. The inscription of freedom on the State Firm bell (now known every bit the Liberty Bell) went unnoticed during the Revolutionary War. After the state of war, abolitionists seeking to terminate slavery in America were inspired past the bell's message.

The Significant
The State Business firm bong became a herald of liberty in the 19th century. "Proclaim Freedom Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof," the bell's inscription, provided a rallying weep for abolitionists wishing to stop slavery. The Anti-Slavery Record, an abolitionist publication, first referred to the bell as the Liberty Bell in 1835, but that name was not widely adopted until years later. Millions of Americans became familiar with the bell in popular culture through George Lippard'southward 1847 fictional story "Ring, Grandad, Ring", when the bell came to symbolize pride in a new nation. Beginning in the late 1800s, the Liberty Bell traveled across the state for display at expositions and fairs, stopping in towns pocket-sized and large along the way. For a nation recovering from wounds of the Civil War, the bell served to remind Americans of a time when they fought together for independence. Movements from Women's Suffrage to Civil Rights embraced the Freedom Bell for both protest and celebration. Pennsylvania suffragists commissioned a replica of the Liberty Bell. Their "Justice Bell" traveled across Pennsylvania in 1915 to encourage support for women's voting rights legislation. It then sat chained in silence until the passage of the 19th Subpoena in 1920. Now a worldwide symbol, the bong's bulletin of liberty remains just as relevant and powerful today: "Proclaim Freedom Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof"

Bong Facts
The two lines of text around the top of the bong include the inscription of liberty, and data about who ordered the bell (Pennsylvania Assembly) and why (to go in their State House):

Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV X
By Guild of the Assembly of the Province of PENSYLVANIA [sic] for the Country Firm in Philada

The information on the face of the bong tells us who bandage the bong (John Pass and John Stow), where (Philadelphia) and when (1753):
Laissez passer and Stow
Philada
MDCCLIII

The bell weighed 2,080 lbs. at order. Information technology is fabricated of bronze. It'southward 70% copper, 25% tin and contains modest amounts of lead, aureate, arsenic, silver, and zinc. The bell's wooden yoke is American elm, but there is no proof that it is the original yoke for this bell. While at that place is prove that the bong rang to mark the Postage Act taxation and its repeal, there is no evidence that the bong rang on July four or eight, 1776.

Additional Information

Lesson plans almost the Freedom Bell are bachelor on the park's "For Teachers" folio. "The Liberty Bell: From Obscurity to Icon", a Teaching with Historic Places lesson plan, is likewise available on the spider web.

In that location are two other bells in the park today, in add-on to the Freedom Bell. The Centennial Bong, made for the nation's 100th altogether in 1876, still rings every hour in the tower of Independence Hall. Information technology weighs 13,000 lbs. - a thousand pounds for each original state. The Bicentennial Bell was a souvenir to the people of the United States from the people of U.k. in 1976. That bong is currently in storage.

• 

  The Liberty Bell as a symbol

  Did y'all know the Freedom Bong was named past abolitionists fighting to end slavery? For airtight captioning of this video, please visit www.youtube.com/indenhp

  Duration:

  33 seconds

Share this post