The Statue of Liberty has become part of the United States of America’s identity; her image has been used, since its introduction, on war bonds, posters, diplomatic campaigns, movies, books, and tourist souvenirs.1 Created by the artist Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), the Statue of Liberty was a suggested gift by political and anti-slavery activist Edouard de Laboulaye (1811-1883) as an indication of France’s comradery to the United States and as a symbolism of the abolishment of slavery after the Union’s victory in the Civil War (1861-1865).2 France’s Liberté had been turned into Liberty, symbolising the rebuilding of American democracy, patriotism, freedom, and justice.

When designing the Statue of Liberty, Bartholdi kept some of the original attributes of France’s Revolutionary Liberty; for example, her Roman-influenced robes, which were a maintained feature in many of her reproductions.3 He also retained her European physical attributes, as at the time this was the most relevant racial disposition.

In an 1870 model of the Statue of Liberty, Bartholdi pictures Liberty holding chains in one hand and a torch in the other. This was done in order to symbolise the abolishment of slavery, but during Bartholdi’s tour around the United States to ascertain support for the statue as well as to find its final home, he became aware of the challenging political climate in relation to equal rights for freed slaves. He then replaced the shackles in her hand with a tablet inscribed with the date of the United States' official independence from England. The chains were moved to her feet, hidden by her robe and pedestal, taking away the original symbolism of the statue itself. Bartholdi also traded in the Phrygian cap worn by Liberté, the original symbol of liberty and freedom worn by republicans during the French Revolution, as an ode to the freed slaves of Ancient Rome, replacing it with a crown. In doing this, Bartholdi was able to separate Liberty from the radical republic of France and further distance her from the original intention of symbolic freedom.

After ten years of construction, the Statue of Liberty, then known as Liberty Enlightening the World, was formally unveiled in 1886. President Grover Cleveland (1837–1908) accepted the statue from France. In his speech proclaiming, ‘This token of the affection and consideration of the people of France demonstrates the kinship of republics [...]’ he continued his speech in stating, ‘[...] a stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man’s oppression until liberty enlightens the world.’4 These words were sanctimoniously used in the wake of an exorbitant amount of violence, as well as political and social prejudice within the United States. In 1882, four years before President Cleveland’s speech, the United States passed the first Chinese Exclusion Act, banning skilled and unskilled labourers from immigrating from China for ten years. This legislation was passed less than a decade after labourers from China aided in the building of the United States' first transcontinental railroad.5

Before, during, and after the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty, America’s war against Native Americans was ongoing, reaching its climax in 1890 in what is now known as the Wounded Knee Massacre, where the U.S. Army butchered hundreds of Native Americans.6 After the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the Reconstruction, lasting from 1865 to 1877, African Americans were freed and given their civil rights to citizenship, voting, and work, but they were still marginalised by the Jim Crow segregation law, terrorised and unjustly murdered by vigilante militia groups.7 In order to further subjugate them, in the 1890s southern states passed new legislation to require a poll tax in order to vote. While poor Caucasian families were able to be exempt from this legislation, its original intention was to create a way to void African Americans’ right to vote.8 In the words of Tyler Stovall, former President of the American Historical Association, ‘Racial difference no longer existed as a function of slavery, but now took center stage in American political and social life.’9

There are further paradoxes in relation to the Statue of Liberty; all of which come from the ability of her iconography to adjust depending on political and social motivations, manufactured to aid in whichever agenda is being considered at the time. The next issue we see in Liberty’s history and relationships to unethical racial inequality during Liberty’s years overseeing the New York Harbour is in European immigration.

In 1883, in the wake of countrywide civil unrest as well as the construction of the statue itself, Jewish-American author Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) published a sonnet titled The New Colossus (1883); created in order to raise money for the creation of the statue’s base. In her poem, later engraved on the pedestal, Lazarus wrote ‘[...] Her name, Mother of Exiles [...] Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free [...]’10 Immediately, before it is finished, the Statue of Liberty becomes further distanced from the abolishment of slavery and is transformed into the welcoming of immigrants. While the United States accepted immigrants from the East Coast and the West Coast during the late 1800s, New York City accounted for 70% of immigrant entry, making the majority of immigrants entering the country of European descent. In doing this, the same physical features being fought to maintain, against the Civil Rights movement, mimicked not only those of Liberty herself but the majority of immigrants being permitted into the United States. The relationship between immigration and the Statue of Liberty quickly became intertwined, and immigration quickly, primarily, became European immigration.

The Statue of Liberty had effectively been removed from her original intention to symbolise the abolishment of slavery, now taking on the allegory of European immigration in the form of a goddess. The next issue we see emerge in the Statue of Liberty is in her idealised female form being held on a pedestal. The Statue of Liberty was created in the form of a conservative Marianne, standing for the Republican shift in both France and the United States. Yet women still found themselves removed from this new liberty. It was frowned upon for women to work, so females of the middle class were banished to the homes.

The Statue of Liberty represented the template of what a woman was meant to be—a prize that was held dear and stayed in her place. The Statue of Liberty communicates the traditional and conventional views of the female gender dictated by her male counterpart. She is the Madonna of the United States, symbolising motherhood by taking in refugees and conservativeness in her full dress and stance, yet still an object created for the enjoyment and pleasure of others. Art historian Marvin Trachtenberg concurs with this belief, stating, ‘[…] She is as much a martyr as a heroine, for she stands immobilised and most heavily draped—like any presentable lady of the nineteenth century—idealised on a high pedestal and put there by a whole crew of firm believers in the traditional arrangement between sexes.

Furthermore, not as we see her, but as we know her, this decent woman takes on an altogether different character—for a fee she is open to all for entry and exploration from below.’ The Statue of Liberty, the United States' most renowned immigrant, originally intended as a symbol of the abolition of slavery, was quickly stripped of its original meaning and transformed into a representation of shifting political agendas. Over time, it has been co-opted to reflect hypocritical narratives, from immigration reform to reinforcing gender roles in the home and society. Throughout its history, this iconic symbol of freedom has been manipulated to serve the interests of those in power, often at the expense of those who genuinely seek liberty.

References

1 Marina Warner, Monuments & Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form, (Berkley: University of California Press, 2014), 15.
2 Gillian Brockell, The Statue of Liberty Was Created to Celebrate Freed Slaves, Not Immigrants, Its New Museum Recounts, 2019.
3 Lynn Hunt, ‘Engraving the Republic: Prints and Propaganda in the French Revolution’ in History Today, 30.10 (1980), 15.
4 President Cleveland, Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World: By the President of the United States on Bedlow’s Island Thursday, October 28, 1886.
5 United States of America, The Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882.
6 Hudson, Myles, Wounded Knee Massacre | Facts, History, & Legacy, 2019.
7 Kellie Carter Jackson, The Story of Violence in America, 2022, 13.
8 Augustus C. Johnson Telegram in Favor of Abolition of the Poll Tax, 1962; Frank B. Williams, The Poll Tax as a Suffrage Requirement in the South, 1870-1901, 1950, 471.
9 Stovall, White Freedom and the Lady of Liberty, 13.
10 Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus, 1883.