Great article on the previously unattributed genius behind the Statue of Freedom

Enslaved artist Phillip Reed, exploited and enslaved by Clark Mills, who received the formal credit. We only know of Reed’s outsized role because of Mills’ claims after Reed was emancipated that Mills deserved greater compensation due to Reed’s skill.

Thanks to Mr. Phillip Reed, we have an enduring memorial to the freedom he was denied atop our Capitol.

This history should be taught.

The government hired Mills to complete the job — casting the plaster model in bronze — paying him a huge sum of $400 (nearly $15,000 today) a month, plus expenses for materials and labor. Mills, though, immediately ran into a big problem: The Italian artist, betting that only he could find the delicate seams to cut it into pieces small enough for the foundry, refused to help without a major financial windfall. How Reed saved the day became legendary. The most detailed account comes from the writer S.D. Wyeth, who heard the story from Mills’ son Fisk. The “highly intelligent” Reed had an idea, Wyeth wrote:

“His plan of working was this: A pulley and tackle was brought into use, and its hook inserted into an iron eye affixed to the head of the figure — the rope was then gently strained repeatedly until the uppermost joining of the top section of the model began to make a faint appearance. This gave some indication as to the whereabouts of its bolts inside, lead(ing) to their discovery; and thus, finally, one after another of the sections was discovered, their bolts unloosed, and the model, uninjured, made ready for the foundry.”

Once in the foundry, Reed worked seven days a week for nine months while the bronze was cast. We know this because Mills kept detailed records and charged the government $1.25 a day — more than his free laborers made — for Reed’s wage. Mills pocketed Reed’s wage six days a week; Reed later filed for and received his wage for 33 Sundays between July 1860 and May 1861, when he was “keeping up fires under the moulds.”

The bronze statue was completed by February 1862. Two months later, an act of Congress freed all enslaved people in Washington, including Reed. Much of what we know about him comes from Mills’ petition to be compensated for the loss of his “property.” Describing Reed as “aged 42 years, mulatto (mixed-race) color, short in stature, in good health, not prepossessing in appearance but smart in mind,” he asked to be compensated $1,500 for Reed — three times the amount he asked for the other people he had enslaved. (Mills received only a fraction of his request, about which he “fumed,” Colletta wrote.) According to Wyeth in 1865, “Mr. Reed, the former slave, is now in business for himself, and highly esteemed by all who know him.” Census records show that he soon married and had a son. Historians have noted that before his emancipation, his last name was spelled “Reid” in official records, while afterward it was spelled “Reed,” suggesting a personal preference. Colletta noted that after Mills’ 1862 compensation hearing, during which Reed had to testify, there’s no evidence the two ever saw each other again, suggesting there was no love lost between them.




How an enslaved genius saved the Capitol dome’s Statue of Freedom
How an enslaved genius saved the Capitol dome’s Statue of Freedom - Tampa Bay Times

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I wish I thought that was pure parody, but I could see it happening

 

Pretty much. They have left the terms undefined, other than any type of material that makes some white kids parents uncomfortable with them thinking about. So I think it fits well within that definition.