Philip Reid

Philip Reed, known as Philip Reid before he was emancipated ( – February 6, 1892), was an African American master craftsman who worked at the foundries of self-taught sculptor Clark Mills. There, historical monuments such as the 1853 equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square, near the White House in Washington, D.C., the 1860 equestrian statue of George Washington in Washington Circle, and the 1863 Statue of Freedom in Washington, D.C., were created.

He was born in c. 1820 into slavery in South Carolina's historic city of Charleston. Reed was already recognized for his talents in the foundry industry when he began working as an enslaved apprentice to Mills in 1842.

Reed was emancipated on April 16, 1862, under the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act. After his emancipation, he assisted Mills in installing the Statue of Freedom atop the United States Capitol, which was completed on December 2, 1863. In the 1860s, after having worked at the foundry for almost two decades, Reed's skills in working with bronze casting were recognized. In 1928, Tennessee Representative Finis J. Garrett presented a paper honoring Reed for his "faithful service and genius", and describing the key role he had played in casting the statue of Freedom, that is now part of the Congressional Record.

Personal life He was born in c. 1820 into slavery in South Carolina and at about the age of 22, he was purchased by a sculptor, Clark Mills, in Charleston for $700

Reed settled in Washington, D.C., living on 3rd and C Street SW near the National Mall. and they had a son named Henry Reed about 1868. In 1879, he married Mary Marshall, a laundress. The cemetery closed in 1894 and his remains were moved to Columbian Harmony Cemetery, where there were about 37,000 graves of African Americans, including Paul Jennings and Elizabeth Keckley. In 1960, his remains and the rest of the cemetery's graves were moved to National Harmony Memorial Park in Landover, Maryland.

Enslaved craftsman

The Clark Mills Studio, #51 Broad Street, in Charleston, South Carolina. North Broad Street elevation. At the time that Reed was purchased to become Clark Mill's apprentice, Charleston had more skilled craftsmen and enslaved craftsmen apprentices than any other city in the country. When Mills petitioned for compensation, a right afforded to district slave owners, Reed was described as healthy 42-year-old man who was a good, healthy workman.

After he was emancipated, Reed worked as a plasterer in Washington, D.C.

Mills moved to Washington after winning the competition and brought Reed and his other workmen with him. In 1852, the casting was complete. The Architect of the Capitol said that they had produced "first bronze statue ever cast in America" through "trial and error". This "accomplishment was extraordinary due to the absence of any formal training of any of the participants."

The Statue of Freedom (1863)

Largely because of the impact of the equestrian statues, in May 1860, Jefferson Davis, then-Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce—who was responsible for public works including the expansion of the U.S. Capitol —awarded the contract to cast Thomas Crawford's Freedom statue to Mills.

Commissioned in 1855, the initial full-size plaster model of Freedom was completed by American sculptor Crawford in his studio in Rome, Italy. He died suddenly in 1857. A plaster model was cast and divided into five main sections for transport in separate crates. Crawford's widow shipped the model to Washington where it was to be cast into bronze. The crates arrived in late March 1859. An Italian craftsman was hired to assemble the five sections and it was put on display in the Old Hall of the House, now National Statuary Hall. According to Mills' son Fisk, the Italian artisan refused to dismantle it until he got a major raise and a long-term contract. He had covered the seams of the sections with a layer of plaster that made them impossible to detect. He thought he was the only one capable of separating the delicate sections without harming them. Reed was able to find the seams by the ingenious use of an iron ring attached to the head of the figure and a block and tackle.

Mills and his workmen began casting the statue in June 1860 at Mills Foundry—a large octagon-shaped studio and foundry on Bladensburg Road NE, District of Columbia.

The 38th Congress (1863–1865) convened five days after Freedom had been installed, to "face and settle the most important questions of the century", and "passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which—when adopted by the states—abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.

... the facts are that [Freedom's] successful taking apart and handling in parts as a model was due to the faithful service and genius of an intelligent negro in Washington named Philip Reed, a mulatto slave owned by Mr. Clark Mill, and that much credit is due him for his faithful and intelligent services rendered in modeling and casting America's superb Statue of Freedom, which kisses the first rays of the aurora of the rising sun as they appear upon the apex of the Capitol's wonderful dome.|William A. Cox, Congressional Record

Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor Center. The 1857 plaster cast of the Statue of Freedom is in the center flanked by stairs which lead to the Capitol itself. Reed was honored for his role to create the capitol dome at the Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor Center along with the plaster cast of the Statue of Freedom. Enslaved laborers who built the Capitol building were also honored.