The Destruction of the Royal Statue at New York on July 9, 1776

On July 9, 1776, after the Declaration of Independence was read out to George Washington’s troops in lower Manhattan, a group of patriots moved down Broadway to topple a statue of George III. Erected in 1770, to mark Britain’s success in the French and Indian War, the monument, made of lead, stood at the center of Bowling Green and showed the king on horseback rather than on foot. Once felled, it was melted down to make patriot bullets. This imaginative re-creation by a German artist accurately shows enslaved and free Black men performing the labor but dresses them in invented, stereotypical attire common to depictions of enslaved people in European art. Baroque style masonry buildings that line the streets are characteristic of a large European city rather than Anglo-Dutch colonial New York.

The print belongs to a popular type known as "Vues d'optique," "Perspektivansichten," or Perspective Prints—horizontal images whose titles often are printed in mirror-writing. When viewed through a perspective glass or zograscope—a device that contains a concave lens and mirror—the text becomes readable and the reversed image appears three-dimensional. Specially designed peep boxes also enhanced viewing. First published in Augsburg, then replicated in Paris, the print comes from a group of New York subjects that show British ships landing troops in lower Manhattan on September 15, 1776, occupying soldiers marching up Broadway, and fire devastating the city shortly afterward. The group demonstrates broad European interest in events taking place across the Atlantic.