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The Story of the Liberty Bell
The State House of the Colony of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia needed a bell. Isaac Norris was made chairman of a committee to procure one, and in 1751, he ordered a large one from a famous London maker. To be emblazoned in bronze round the bell’s crown, he chose a verse from the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus: Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. At first this beautiful example of the bell-maker’s art was to be called the Providence Bell.
After considerable time, it was delivered and duly hung in the steeple of the State House. On the first stroke of its clapper, the mighty bell cracked. It was taken down and sent to an American bell-maker who re-melted it and twice made it over before the Pennsylvanians were happy with the bell’s tone. Re-hung in the steeple, it was hanging there in 1776 when the Continental Congress was considering Lee’s Resolution: Resolved that the United Colonies are and ought to be free and independent states.
Not until the 1830’s was it re-named the Liberty Bell. In 1839, Friends of Freedom distributed at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair in Boston, a pamphlet entitled “The Liberty Bell” which carried a picture of the bell. They used the name Liberty in connection with the freedom of the slaves, and not the independence of the Colonies. George Lippard, a journalist, wrote a newspaper series entitled “Legends of the Revolution” and furthered the myth of the origin of the name, making the former Providence Bell immortal as the Liberty Bell. Reproduced on coins, stamps, and government bonds, it has become a cherished emblem of our Country.
by Author Unknown
The State House of the Colony of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia needed a bell. Isaac Norris was made chairman of a committee to procure one, and in 1751, he ordered a large one from a famous London maker. To be emblazoned in bronze round the bell’s crown, he chose a verse from the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus: Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. At first this beautiful example of the bell-maker’s art was to be called the Providence Bell.
After considerable time, it was delivered and duly hung in the steeple of the State House. On the first stroke of its clapper, the mighty bell cracked. It was taken down and sent to an American bell-maker who re-melted it and twice made it over before the Pennsylvanians were happy with the bell’s tone. Re-hung in the steeple, it was hanging there in 1776 when the Continental Congress was considering Lee’s Resolution: Resolved that the United Colonies are and ought to be free and independent states.
Not until the 1830’s was it re-named the Liberty Bell. In 1839, Friends of Freedom distributed at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair in Boston, a pamphlet entitled “The Liberty Bell” which carried a picture of the bell. They used the name Liberty in connection with the freedom of the slaves, and not the independence of the Colonies. George Lippard, a journalist, wrote a newspaper series entitled “Legends of the Revolution” and furthered the myth of the origin of the name, making the former Providence Bell immortal as the Liberty Bell. Reproduced on coins, stamps, and government bonds, it has become a cherished emblem of our Country.
by Author Unknown
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