As proof of the friendship and the community of emotions of the people of the two countries, Laboulaye pointed out that the people of the United States  honored the remembrances of common glories, and  loved Lafayette and his volunteers as they revered  *American heroes.   He declared that this common heritage was of far greater importance in America than the political acts of the French Government...   Adapted from Harper's Weekly, December 15, 1866.     * The brave black soldiers out of slavery ..Ed. ________

Thank God My Regiment an African One: The Civil War Diary of Colonel Nathan W. Daniels  Edited By C.P. Weaver. 

   Louisiana State University Press       ISBN 0-8071-2242-4   or Paper  ISBN 0-8071-2256-0 
Quote:
"[This book] is required reading for grasping the full range of obstacles that African Americans 
      faced in their struggle for freedom and equality during the Civil War era"   -- Civil War History.

Louisiana Native Guards on Ship Island 1863-1870 
Quote: 'While others dismissed the African-American regiments, the Second Regiment's commander, Colonel Nathan Daniels, expressed in his diary strong confidence in his troops. An ardent abolitionist from New York and Ohio, he ached to prove the regiment's worth in battle and for military glory.
 

"Thank God my Regiment an African one, that I have been  permitted to assemble them under the banner of freedom to do and die for their country & liberty-The 2nd Louisiana Regiment of Native Guards will yet have a name in history."     Colonel Nathan W. Daniels, 2nd Regiment

One especially interesting member of Daniels' command was his black major, Francis E. Dumas. A refined, educated, slave-owning plantation owner, Dumas spoke five languages, and his abilities impressed both Colonel Daniels and General Butler. Dumas enlisted his one hundred slaves into one company of the Native Guards, calling upon them to "break the bonds" of their fellow men. As a major, Dumas was the highest nonwhite commissioned officer to see combat  during the war.' 
  

A History Lesson

It is hard to believe that after my many years of schooling (secondary and post) the following facts about the Statue of Liberty was never taught. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people including myself have visited the Statue of Liberty over the years but yet I'm unable to find one person who knows the true history behind the Statue- amazing. Yes, amazing that so much important Black history (such as this) is hidden from us (Black and White). What makes this even worse is the fact that the current twist on history perpetuates and promotes white supremacy at the expense of Black Pride.

During my visit to France I saw the original Statue of Liberty. However there was a difference, the statue in France is Black. The Statue of Liberty was originally a Black woman, but, as memory serves, it was because the model was Black.

In a book called "The Journey of The Songhai People", according to Dr. Jim Haskins, a member of the National Education Advisory Committee of the Liberty-Ellis Island Committee, professor of English at the University of Florida, and prolific Black author, points out that what stimulated the original idea for that 151 foot statue in the harbor.

He says that what stimulated the idea for the creation of the statue initially was the part that Black soldiers played in the ending of Black African Bondage in the United States. It was created in the mind of the French historian Edourd de Laboulaye, chairman of the French Anti-Slavery Society, who, together with sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi,proposed to the French government that the people of France present to the people of the United States through the American Abolitionist Society, the gift of a Statue of Liberty in recognition of the fact that Black soldiers won the Civil War in the United States.

It was widely known then that it was Black soldiers who played the pivotal role in winning the war, and this gift would be a tribute to their prowess. Suzanne Nakasian, director of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island Foundations' National Ethnic Campaign said that the Black Americans' direct connection to Lady Liberty is unknown to the majority of Americans, BLACK or WHITE.

When the statue was presented to the U.S. Minister to France in 1884, it is said that he remonstrated that the dominant view of the broken hackles would be offensive to a U.S. South, because since the statue was a reminder of Blacks winning their freedom. It was a reminder to a beaten South of the ones who caused their defeat, their despised former captives.

Documents of Proof:

1.) You may go and see the original model of the Statue of Liberty, with the broken chains at her feet and in her left hand. Go to the Museum of the City of NY, Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street write to Peter Simians and he can send you some documentation.

2.) Check with the N.Y. Times magazine, part II_May 18, 1986. Read the article by Laboulaye.

3.) The dark original face of the Statue of Liberty can be seen in the N.Y. Post, June 17, 1986, also the Post stated the reason for the broken chains at her feet.

4.) Finally, you may check with the French Mission or the French Embassy at the U.N. or in Washington, D.C. and ask for some original French material on the Statue of Liberty, including the Bartholdi original model.

You can call in September (202) 944-6060 or 6400. Please pass this information along! 

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The official view, as taught to American schoolchildren for the past hundred years, holds that Lady Liberty was originally intended to commemorate the friendship forged between the United States and France during the Revolutionary War.  By 1903, when the statue was inscribed with Me Lazarus's poetic words, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," it had come to symbolize America's status as a safe haven for refugees and immigrants from every corner of the world. 

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Does The Statue of Liberty Celebrates Abolition  ?
http://www.africana.com/research/blackfacts/bl_fact_46.asp

There is strong evidence that the original purpose of the Statue of Liberty was to celebrate the end of American slavery. Edouard De Laboulaye, the head of the French Anti-Slavery Society and an ardent supporter of the Northern cause during the Civil War, conceived the idea of the Statue in 1865. This was a momentous year: it saw the successful conclusion of the War with the victory of the Union, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln who had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and, closest to De Laboulaye's heart, the destruction of the slavery he detested. De Laboulaye's intent was to create a monument that commemorated these events, a gift of France to the United States that would also celebrate the friendship of two great freedom-loving nations.

De Laboulaye collaborated with Auguste Bartholdi, a designer of colossal monuments, who adapted his rejected proposal for a great statue in Egypt to his plan for what became the Statue of Liberty. An early model of the Statue shows her left hand extended and holding broken chains. This was eliminated in the final construction, but broken shackles still exist at Liberty's feet, clear evidence of the Statue's anti-slavery symbolism.

When Liberty was erected in New York harbor in 1886, time had diminished the power of the events that prompted De Laboulaye's original vision. Particularly, the nation's commitment to African American freed people had so faded that no one was interested in emphasizing the Statue's celebration of abolition. Also, this period saw the beginning of the arrival of tens of millions of Europeans, welcomed to America by the massive Statue holding aloft the welcoming light of freedom. The Statue took on this new meaning, and has sustained that noble representation for over 100 years. Unfortunately, the original symbolism of 1865 has been, to use Prof. Rayford Logan's description of much of African American history, "lost, strayed, or stolen."