A former slave who played a pivotal role in casting the giant bronze Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol dome, Reid now has a historical marker at the National Harmony Memorial Park in Hyattsville noting his contribution and that he died a free man.
The marker was unveiled fittingly on Wednesday, Emancipation Day, which commemorates the day in 1862 President Abraham Lincoln abolished involuntary servitude in the District. That is how the slave who helped construct the symbol of freedom over the Capitol gained his own freedom.
The marker, arranged and paid for by a writer trying to shed light on significant but overlooked moments in American history, is in a section of the cemetery where a garden will be planted and named for Solomon Northup, who wrote “Twelve Years a Slave.”
