Walk into the Howard University Gallery of Art and you'll see it. It’s marble. It’s heavy. It’s white—but the story it tells is anything but monochromatic. Forever Free by Edmonia Lewis isn't just a statue; it’s a radical political manifesto carved into stone by a woman who spent her whole life defying every box society tried to put her in.
Lewis was a pioneer. Honestly, "pioneer" feels too small. She was Black, she was Native American (Ojibwe), and she was an artist in an era when most people thought someone like her should be domestic help, not a world-renowned sculptor. She didn't just make art; she made statements.
The sculpture was finished in 1867. Think about that date. The Civil War had just ended. The 13th Amendment was fresh ink. People were still trying to figure out what "freedom" actually meant in a country that had built its entire economy on the backs of stolen people.
What Forever Free by Edmonia Lewis Actually Represents
When you look at the piece, you see a man and a woman. The man is standing tall, his right hand resting on the shoulder of a kneeling woman, his left hand raised high. There’s a broken shackle on his wrist. It’s a literal representation of the end of slavery.
But there’s a nuance here that most people miss. Look at his foot. He’s stepping on a ball and chain. It’s not just that he’s free; he’s actively triumphing over the thing that held him down.
Then there’s the woman. She’s kneeling. Her hands are clasped in prayer. For a long time, art critics—mostly white men—looked at this and saw a "traditional" submissive woman. But that’s a surface-level take. In the context of 1867, showing a Black woman in a position of Victorian-style piety was a massive flex. It was a way of claiming a level of "feminine respectability" that had been systematically denied to Black women for centuries.
Lewis was smart. She knew her audience. She was living in Rome when she carved this, part of a group of female sculptors Henry James famously called "that white marmorean flock." She had to play the game to get her work seen, but she hid her rebellion in the details.
The Struggle Behind the Stone
Edmonia Lewis didn't have it easy. Before she was famous, she was a student at Oberlin College. It ended in a nightmare. She was accused of poisoning two of her white classmates—a charge that was almost certainly fueled by racism. A mob dragged her out and beat her nearly to death.
She survived. She moved to Boston. She moved to Rome.
Why Rome? Because in Italy, she could find the marble and the masters. More importantly, she could find a bit of distance from the suffocating American racial hierarchy. While other sculptors hired Italian workmen to finish their marble, Lewis did it herself. She had to. If she didn't, people would say a Black woman couldn't possibly have carved something so delicate.
Forever Free was originally titled The Morning of Liberty. That’s a key detail. It implies a beginning, not an ending. It suggests that while the chains were broken, the day was just starting. There was still a lot of work to do.
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Why the Composition Matters More Than You Think
The man in the sculpture is noticeably more "African" in his features than the woman. His hair is textured. His nose is broad. This was a choice. Lewis was pushing back against the "neoclassical" trend of making everyone look like a Greek god with European features.
The woman, however, looks more Eurocentric. Why? Some historians suggest Lewis was trying to make the piece more "palatable" to the white abolitionists she hoped would buy it. Others think it represents the complex reality of mixed-race heritage in the American South.
Key Facts About the Sculpture
- Material: White Carrara Marble.
- Location: Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Created: 1867 in Rome.
- Height: Roughly 41 inches tall.
- Original Name: The Morning of Liberty.
Lewis was basically a freelancer. She didn't have a massive endowment. She relied on commissions. She eventually sold Forever Free to Reverend Leonard Grimes, a prominent Black abolitionist and pastor in Boston. It was a piece made by a Black woman, about Black liberation, and ultimately supported by the Black community.
The Mystery of Edmonia's Legacy
For a long time, Edmonia Lewis was kind of... forgotten. Not by everyone, but by the mainstream art world. Her grave in London was unmarked until quite recently. Forever Free is one of the few major works of hers that we can still see and touch.
It’s easy to look at a statue and see a static object. But Forever Free is movement. It’s the tension between the kneeling woman and the standing man. It’s the contrast between the cold marble and the heat of the political moment it was born into.
Lewis wasn't just "good for her time." She was a master of the medium. She understood how to make stone look like skin and how to make a heavy material feel like it was floating.
Why You Should Care Today
We live in a world of digital images. Everything is fast. Sculpture is slow. It takes months, sometimes years, of physical labor. When you look at the curve of the man’s arm in Forever Free, you’re looking at months of Lewis’s life. You're looking at her sweat.
She used her art to carve out a space for herself in a world that didn't want her to exist. That’s the real power of Forever Free by Edmonia Lewis. It’s a reminder that freedom isn't just something that is given; it’s something that is claimed, sculpted, and defended.
Actionable Steps for Art Lovers
If you want to truly appreciate this work, don't just look at a JPEG. You’ve gotta dig deeper into the history.
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- Visit Howard University: If you’re in D.C., go see it in person. The scale of the marble changes everything. You can see the tool marks. You can see the texture.
- Read "The Indomitable Spirit of Edmonia Lewis": Research the work of scholars like Kirsten Pai Buick. She’s one of the leading experts on Lewis and breaks down the racial and gender politics of her work in a way that is honestly mind-blowing.
- Compare it to the Emancipation Memorial: Look up Thomas Ball’s Emancipation Memorial (the one with Lincoln and the kneeling slave). Compare it to Lewis’s Forever Free. Notice the difference in who has the agency. In Ball’s work, Lincoln is the hero. In Lewis’s work, the Black man is the one breaking his own chains.
- Support Black Female Artists: Lewis was the first. She shouldn't be the last. Look into contemporary sculptors like Simone Leigh. See how the conversation Lewis started in 1867 is still happening in galleries today.
Lewis died in 1907. She didn't see the end of Jim Crow. She didn't see the Civil Rights movement. But she left us a map. She showed us that even when the world is heavy as marble, you can still shape it into something beautiful. Look at the broken shackle. That’s the point. The chain is broken, but the arm is still raised. That is the essence of Forever Free—it’s not a finished state; it’s an ongoing action.