Henry Ward Beecher Statue at Plymouth Church

This sculpture by Gutzon Borglum portrays Henry Ward Beecher with two small African-American children crouching nearby. It is presumed that the girl child is "Pink," the slave child freed through auction by Beecher in the Plymouth Church. In this photograph, the elderly Mrs. Rose Ward Hunt (formerly Sally Maria Diggs, the girl known as "Pinky" or "Pink") returns to the church where she was freed in 1860. Mrs. Hunt is on the right, looking up at the statue of Reverend Beecher. On the left is a bas-relief sculpture of Abraham Lincoln. Plymouth Church is located at 75 Hicks Street in Brooklyn.

For more about this story, see Documents 13 and 15.

 

 

 

 

Citation - Document 105
Photographs: Churches: Congregational: Plymouth: Henry Ward Beecher
1927
Brooklyn Public Library – Brooklyn Collection
www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/civilwar