Seeing the Liberty Bell in person has long been a bucket list item so I was grateful that we had a good experience visiting last Saturday. I wanted to go because it is incredibly symbolic in US history and rightfully so. In case you don’t remember from school, the Liberty Bell was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1751 to mark the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s Charter of Privileges. This is the bell that rang on July 8, 1776 to summon Philadelphia citizens for the public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
The bell is easily recognizable for its iconic crack and attracts millions of people each year. Today, it is available for public viewing in a nice building across the cobblestone street from its original location – the bell tower in the former Pennsylvania State House which we now call Independence Hall.
No living person knows exactly when the crack began and none have heard it ring with its clapper. The US Park Service says the crack likely formed in the 1840s and that local metal workers attempted to repair the bell in 1846. The repair attempt actually made the situation worse and a second crack formed, silencing the bell forever.
These are the stories we are taught here in America.
Ironically, 1846 was the same year that a Pennsylvania representative named David Wilmot proposed legislation meant to bar the expansion of slavery into lands acquired after the Mexican American War. The legislation failed and worsened North-South tensions around the same time the symbol for national liberty was irreversibly damaged.
What we don’t consider is how the LIberty Bell is viewed by others. The NPS does a decent job of suggesting that it has meant different things to different groups of American people. A photo of Chief LIttle Bear with the Liberty Bell at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco tells a much different story than the narrative of freedom and liberty for all. This member of the Blackfeet Tribe stares at the camera with piercing eyes that suggest he didn’t care much for the American notion that segregation or assimilation that suppressed his people’s cultural practices were the only options for coexisting.
An iron collar and chains used to literally hold slaves in bondage tells another story as well.
Social movements including Women’s Suffrage and Civil Rights embraced the Liberty Bell for protest and celebration, giving the bell increasingly profound meaning as groups that were not given freedoms by the founding fathers labored to claim what was rightfully theirs.
I found myself feeling some mixture of shame and pride for my country’s choices across the centuries and something akin to bittersweet as I began to drill down to the changing importance of this national symbol.
Americans and people of many other nationalities were there that morning – some looked bored, others excited. Many seemed to just want an Instagram photo while others wanted to linger. But nothing prepared me for the amount of people from other countries and the excitement they held for being so close to the Liberty Bell.
I overheard an elderly man who spoke good English with an Indian accent ask a question of a park ranger. He told the ranger that he had dreamed of seeing the Liberty Bell and could hardly believe he was there. I overheard a dad and young daughter speaking a language I did not recognize. He was pointing excitedly and she was smiling as he told her some story. I still wish I knew what they were saying.
It made me wish more American families showed such interest in our own nation’s history.
Our good experience was made possible by our being early risers and curious people who believe you can always sleep when you get home from a trip. We were in line right after they opened and it took just 2-3 minutes to get through security. From there, we took our time studying everything on display and waited for a couple of other parties to take their pictures before we got ours.
This was a stark contrast to the line we saw later in the day. It extended well down the sidewalk and the view through the window showed a line of people simply streaming past the bell. In other words, go early to avoid the crowds and have a much richer experience.
This was a good start to the day. From here, we went on to the Ben Franklin Museum, the Betsy Ross House, Christ Church and Independence Hall with numerous stops to look at other things along the way. It was a busy day and one I won’t soon forget.
Keep coming back. There are more stories to tell!
