Existing comment:
Abolition
Alexander von Humboldt believed in the equality of all races and would advocate for the abolition of slavery throughout his life. His views were shaped by his training in ethnography and his experiences among the indigenous peoples of South America. He despised colonial rule and enslavement equally. In his letters and books he wrote eloquently that what he admired about America was, that in a democracy, "the people really can breathe with more freedom."
In 1845 Humboldt declared that "nature is the domain of liberty" -- one of his key precepts. Just five years later, California entered the Union as a free state -- widely seen as a victory for abolitionists. Explorer John C. Frémont became one of California's first senators. He had come to Humboldt's attention for his daring exploits and for naming landmarks for the Prussian baron. Humboldt subsequently arranged for Frémont to receive the Prussian Medal of Science; in the letter accompanying the honor, Humboldt extolled California as a place that had "so nobly resisted the introduction of Slavery" and Frémont as "a friend of liberty and of the progress of intelligence."
Humboldt's support for Frémont's presidential campaign in 1856 reinforced the growing belief that the California landscape and, more specifically, Yosemite, were visual metaphors for freedom. Both John C. Frémont and his wife Jessie Benton Fremont, whose portraits are on view in this gallery, collected sculptures by John Quincy Adams Ward and John Rogers, along with Albert Bierstadt's paintings and Carleton Watkins's photographs of California as emblems of American liberty. By 1864 President Abraham Lincoln had signed legislation designating Yosemite as a sanctuary for all Americans, reaffirming the power of natural icons to serve as emblems of American values. |