Topline
The Trump administration installed a statue of founding father Caesar Rodney in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, years after the statue was removed from its previous location in Delaware in 2020 after critics noted Rodney had enslaved hundreds of people in the 18th century.
Key Facts
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a post on X Saturday afternoon the statue of Rodney was installed in Washington, D.C.’s Freedom Plaza, just blocks from the National Mall and the White House.
The statue was installed in Washington to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, Burgum said in his post, addingPresident Donald Trump is “committed to celebrating and acknowledging the full breadth of our nation’s history.”
Burgum said the statue recognizes a lengthy ride Rodney made from Delaware to Philadelphia in July 1776 to cast a deciding vote in favor of independence at the Continental Congress.
The statue, which depicts Rodney on a horse, was first erected in Wilmington, Delaware on Independence Day in 1923, though it was taken down in 2020 amid a racial reckoning after the police killing of George Floyd because Rodney owned hundreds of slaves, according to historians.
Forbes has reached out to the Interior Department for comment.
Why Was Rodney’s Statue Removed?
The Wilmington city government removed the statue of Rodney in 2020 alongside a statue of Christopher Columbus. In a statement at the time, Wilmington’s mayor Mike Purzycki said the statues would be “removed and stored so there can be an overdue discussion about the public display of historical figures and events.” The statues were removed less than three weeks after Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, which prompted the removal of statues of figures associated with racial injustice, slavery or the Confederacy across the country. Purzycki’s statement said social media posts showed individuals and groups planned to vandalize the Columbus and Rodney statues. “We cannot erase history, as painful as it may be, but we can certainly discuss history with each other and determine together what we value and what we feel is appropriate to memorialize,” Purzycki said. Trump criticized the statue’s removal in 2020, saying in a proclamation on Rodney’s birthday his statue was removed as part of a “radical purge of America’s founding generation,” saying the memory of Rodney “is at risk of being erased forever.” He also used the statue’s removal to slam his then-election opponent, Delaware native and former President Joe Biden, saying Biden “said nothing as to his home state’s history, and the fact that it was dismantled, dismembered and a Founding Father’s statue was removed,” though the statue was not dismembered as Trump claimed.
Who Was Caesar Rodney?
Rodney was a member of the Continental Congress, where he was a delegate representing Delaware, and signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Rodney is best known for his journey from Delaware to Philadelphia in July 1776, which he undertook to break a tie among Delaware’s delegation to the Continental Congress to vote in favor of independence. Dick Carter, chairman of Delaware’s heritage commission, previously told the New York Times Rodney inherited his father’s 849-acre farm upon his death, where he enslaved as many as 200 people.
Key Background
The Trump administration in October reinstalled a statue of Confederate general Albert Pike, which was toppled and set on fire by protesters in 2020, near the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Trump also lamented in a Truth Social post last summer the Smithsonian museums focus too much on “how bad Slavery was,” highlighting “nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”
Further Reading
Trump Administration Reinstalls Confederate Statue in Washington (New York Times)
