Abraham Lincoln: "Emancipation" - East Hartford, CT

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Emancipation

East Hartford, CT

Topic: Abraham Lincoln

Emancipation

Plaque

N 41° 45.938 W 072° 39.873

Quick Description: 

Emancipation the title of a sculpture that celebrates Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. It's installed in the Lincoln Financial Sculpture Walk on the Founders' Bridge between Hartford and East Hartford, CT.

Long Description:

Sixteen abstract and traditional sculptures related to the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln are installed along the Lincoln Financial Sculpture Walk at Riverfront in Hartford and East Hartford.

The Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the height of the Civil War. This added a second dimension to the War. Now, the mission was not only to preserve the Union but also, ultimately, to abolish slavery in the United States.

Emancipation is a 3' high bronze sculpture resting on a pedestal which depicts a black family. The central figure is a woman holding a baby high above her head. To her right a man is holding her waist with his left hand while holding a banjo in his left hand. To the left of the woman, a teen-age boy celebrates by raising his left hand high above his head. A plaque contains a Lincoln quote and an explanation of Lincoln's legacy as an emancipator is inscribed:

{Profile of Lincoln}
Lincoln
Financial
Sculpture
Walk at
Riverfront
{five wavy lines}


Emancipation
Preston Jackson, 2006

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be
a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."

Abraham Lincoln insisted that slavery was a "monstrous
injustice" and "an unqualified evil". He believed the
nation's founding fathers agreed with his position and that
the restrictions they had placed on slavery's expansion
would ultimately bring slavery to extinction. However,
with the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854,
Lincoln re-entered politics protesting that the law
would allow for the expansion of slavery. Lincoln's moral
condemnation of slavery raised his profile before a
national audience, and his election to the presidency in
1860 prompted seven states to form the Confederate
States of America in February 1861. Within months, four
more states seceded to join the Confederacy and the
American Civil war began. Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freeing the slaves in
the rebel states and thus changing the war to save the
Union to a war that also would ultimately destroy slavery.
The Emancipation proclamation paved the way for
200,000 black men, most former slaves who had risked
their lives to escape plantations, to serve in the Union
Armies and Navies. In August 1863 Lincoln wrote, "the
emancipation policy and the use of colored troops
constitute the heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion."


The Lincoln Financial is an insurance company based in Philadelphia with offices in Hartford.