We strolled through the Liberty Bell Garden
The Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell was commissioned on November 1, 1751, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s Charter of Privileges for his Pennsylvania colony. The radical charter granted religious liberty to persecuted faiths, including Quakers, Jews, Catholics, and others, thus establishing America’s tradition of religious freedom.
The Bell cracked when first tested.
Two local foundry men recast The Bell and it began service in 1753 tooling special events. In the Revolutionary War, The bell tolled to announce the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the first public reading goes The Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776.
It cracked again on July 8, 1835, during the funeral procession of Chief Justice John Marshall. It was repaired but cracked again in 1846 when it rang for George Washington’s birthday. It has not been rung since. It was not called “The Liberty Bell” until 1839 when William Lloyd Garrison’s anti-slavery publication, “The Liberator” published a poem about the Bell. This use by advocates of the anti-slavery movement made The Bell a new symbol of freedom.
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