Liberty Bell

Liberty Bell historic relic in Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia. First hung in Independence Hall in 1753, it bore the inscription, "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof" (Lev. 25.10); thus it was fitting that the bell was rung in July, 1776, to proclaim the Declaration of Independence. Taken to Allentown and hidden (1777-78) during the British occupation of Philadelphia, it was later brought back. In 1781 it was moved from the steeple to the hall's brick tower. It was cracked in 1835 tolling the death of John Marshall and again in 1846. In 1976 the bell was moved to a new pavilion behind Independence Hall.

Bibliography: See V. Rosewater, The Liberty Bell (1926); C. M. Boland, Ring in the Jubilee (1973).

Liberty Bell US monument housed in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. According to legend, it was rung in July 1776 to celebrate the American Declaration of Independence.

Liberty Bell, The (1839–58), gift book devoted to antislavery literature, was published from Boston under the sponsorship of Maria Chapman. The volumes appeared annually except in 1849, 1853, 1854, and 1856. Among the contributors were Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, Parker, Wendell Phillips, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Bayard Taylor. The foreign contributors, numbering nearly 75, included Elizabeth Browning, Harriet Martineau, and Tocqueville. Ignoring the economic issues involved, the volumes were confined to emotional appeals to popular morality.