How a Cracked Bell Became a Symbol of Liberty
In 1751 the Pennsylvania Assembly ordered a new bell for its State House, the building we now call Independence Hall. It was cast at the Whitechapel Foundry in London and arrived in Philadelphia in 1752.
It cracked the first time it was rung. Two local metalworkers, John Pass and John Stow, melted it down and recast it, adding their names and the year to the bell. That is the bell that hangs in Philadelphia today.
The inscription
Around the crown is a line from the Book of Leviticus (25:10):
“Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof.”
How it got its name
For decades it was simply the State House bell. In the 1830s abolitionists adopted it as a symbol of their cause and began calling it the Liberty Bell, taking its inscription as a call to end slavery. The name stuck.
The famous crack that silenced it for good widened in the 1840s. Today the bell is displayed at the Liberty Bell Center in Independence National Historical Park, just steps from the hall where the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
Source: National Park Service, Independence National Historical Park.