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On this day in New York · July 9, 1776

New Yorkers Tear Down the King

Hours after Washington's troops heard the Declaration of Independence read aloud, a Manhattan crowd turned a gilded King George III into scrap metal at Bowling Green.

New Yorkers Tear Down the King
Wikimedia Commons / Bowling Green, Kentucky

The facts

Date
July 9, 1776
The statue
A 4,000-pound gilded lead equestrian statue of King George III, sculpted by Joseph Wilton, dedicated at Bowling Green in August 1770
Who did it
A crowd of Sons of Liberty, soldiers, and sailors, some armed with axes, hammers, and ladders
What happened to it
Hauled to Connecticut and melted into bullets for the Continental Army; surviving fragments are held today by the New-York Historical Society

On July 9, 1776, General Washington had the newly adopted Declaration of Independence read aloud to his troops on the Common, near today's City Hall Park. Word spread fast, and within hours a crowd of Sons of Liberty, soldiers, and sailors marched down Broadway to Bowling Green, where a 4,000-pound gilded lead statue of King George III on horseback had stood since 1770. Armed with axes, hammers, and ladders, they pulled the king off his pedestal, knocked off his head, and dragged the pieces through the streets. The remains eventually traveled to Connecticut, where townspeople melted the lead down into bullets for the Continental Army. It was New York's loudest possible way of announcing that the old boss was fired.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. long had an inclination

    Describing the mood of Washington's troops toward the king's statue before they toppled it, as recounted by a Continental Army officer

    Source: Smithsonian Magazine

  2. Emanations from the Leaden George

    Continental Army lieutenant Isaac Bangs, on what the melted-down statue's lead could do to British troops

    Source: Smithsonian Magazine

Why it still matters

It's the same instinct that's been pulling monuments down in this city ever since: when the politics change, New York doesn't wait for permission to redecorate. Bowling Green is still there at the foot of Broadway, doing the same job it did in 1770, just without a king on it.

Sources

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