Posted on September 22, 2021

Virginia Capital Unveils Monument Marking End of Slavery After Removing Confederate Statue

Joseph Ax, Reuters, September 22, 2021

Two weeks after Richmond, Virginia, removed a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that had prompted protests over racial injustice, the city unveiled a new monument on Wednesday commemorating the end of slavery.

The Emancipation and Freedom Monument, designed by Oregon sculptor Thomas Jay Warren, comprises two 12-foot bronze statues depicting a man and a woman carrying an infant, newly freed from slavery.

“The enslaved built this city with their hands,” Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said at a ceremony to mark the occasion. “We will rebuild this city with our hearts.”

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The pedestal features the names and biographies of 10 Black Virginians who contributed to the fight for liberty before and after emancipation, including Nat Turner, who led a briefly successful slave revolt in 1831 in the state, and Dred Scott, a slave whose unsuccessful lawsuit seeking his freedom led to the infamous U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1857 that people of African descent were not entitled to citizenship.

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