What the statue of a kneeling enslaved man in the Emancipation Memorial of 1876 tells us about its history

The striking Emancipation Memorial statue in Washington, D.C., shows Abraham Lincoln standing, while a man wearing only a loincloth is appearing to rise from a kneeling position. The face in the memorial is that of Archer Alexander, who had escaped slavery in 1863 by fleeing to St. Louis, Missouri. Fundraising for a memorial was launched in 1864 by Charlotte Scott, who had been enslaved in Virginia before moving to Ohio. She did not design the monument, however. As a historian of art, I argue that the origin and evolution of this image illustrate how ideas can change over time. History of the design The monument in Washington fuses the portrait of a real-life individual with a common symbol that had galvanized abolitionists for almost 100 years: a generic image of a kneeling enslaved person. The image of the kneeling man in chains was first used in a seal commissioned by the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, established by English Quakers in 1787. The seal shows a kneeling slave, clasping his chained hands, who asks, “Am I not a man and a brother?” The antislavery medallion. Manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood, British Modeler William Hackwood/The Metropolitan Museum, New York The...