- The Washington Post

- The Washington Post: Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia, in 1862, found Philip Reid working in a Bladensburg foundry, helping to cast a giant bronze statue destined to crown the massive new dome of the U.S. Capitol building.

He was a slave, owned by the foundry’s owner, Clark Mills, and the statue he was working on was a symbol of freedom. He is the only slave known to have participated in the gigantic project, the so-called Capitol Extension that, between 1850 and 1865, added new Senate and House wings and a cast-iron dome. The addition would transform the too-small Capitol of antebellum Washington into the majestic seat of government we know today.