America

The Goddess Columbia

Phillis Wheatley and Columbia "His Excellency, General Washington" (1775) Phillis Wheatley Celestial choir, enthron'd in realms of light, Columbia's scenes of glorious toils I write. While freedom's cause her anxious breast alarms, She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms. See mother earth her offspring's fate bemoan, And nations gaze at scenes before unknown; See the bright beams of heaven's revolving light Involved in sorrows and the veil of night! The Goddess comes, she moves divinely fair, Olive and laurel binds Her golden hair: Wherever shines this native of the skies, Unnumber'd charms and recent graces rise.

1840s

Phrygian Bonnett

Brittania – the female personification of the British Isles – on pennies since 1797

119 CE 1672

Armada Memorial 1888

1928

Paul Revere’s Coin

tabula ansata

Freedom Sheathed sword Laurel wreath Shield Helmet War helmet (Version of Columbia as Freedom)

The image of the personified Columbia was never fixed, but she was most often presented as a woman between youth and middle age, wearing classically draped garments decorated with the stars and stripes; a popular version gave her a red-and-white striped dress and a blue blouse, shawl, or sash spangled with white stars. Her headdress varied; sometimes it included feathers reminiscent of a Native American headdress, sometimes it was a laurel wreath but most often it was a cap of liberty.” (This liberty, or Phrygian, cap, is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward. In late Republican Rome, such a cap served as a symbol of freedom from tyranny. It has been used to symbolize liberty in numerous countries of the Americas.)

Justice

Marianne

https://carlanthonyonline https://carlanthonyonline.com/2013/07/06/uncle-sams-girlfriend- columbia-a-hot-star-he-dumped-part-3/

A small-but-brutally vivid political cartoon deploring the Boston Port Bill of 1774. Soon after the Boston Tea Party of December 1773, Parliament retaliated by passing the five so-called “Intolerable Acts.” Among other things, these brought Massachusetts political appointments under control of the British government, restricted town meetings for a year, and closed the Port of Boston until reparations were paid for the destroyed tea. The Acts are the target of the ribald cartoon offered here, which equates America with a native woman being violated by the British leadership. As with most British political satires of the period, this cartoon is replete with imagery whose meaning is today obscure to non-specialists but would have been clear to informed viewers at the time. Don Creswell`s The American Revolution in Drawings and Prints explains the image in some detail: “America, a half-clad Indian woman, is attacked by Mansfield, North (who is pouring the tea down her throat and has a copy of “Boston Port Bill” in his pocket), Bute, and the Earl of Sandwich. A Frenchman and Spaniard look on, while Britannia weeps. In the foreground a “Boston Petition” lies torn on the ground, and in the background the British fleet is bombarding Boston.” (Creswell #664) It is worth noting that, while it made for effective propaganda, the alleged bombardment of Boston was entirely fictitious. The print appeared in The London Magazine for April 1774. Within a couple of months a pirated version was engraved by Paul Revere and appeared in the May 1774 Royal American Magazine. References British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, #V.5226. Creswell, American Revolution, #664.

Marianne often appears wearing a helmet and bearing arms, like Athena of Greece. The Republic is warlike and protective, she will fight for her values, first among which is Liberty, as at Valmy, where she asserted her universal calling in the face of the reactionary monarchists. A decree of 1792 stipulated that the "state seal was to be changed and should henceforth bear the figure of France in the guise of a woman dressed after the fashion of Antiquity, standing upright, her right hand holding a pikestaff surmounted by a Phrygian bonnet, or Liberty bonnet, and her left hand resting on a bundle of arms: at her feet, a tiller."