Liberty Bell Center

Philadelphia
PA

Portrait by Artist to Come

QUICK FACTS

           

LINKS
LOCATION

View Larger Map
Already cracked when it was imported from England, the bell was recast in 1753 but later cracked again. It was probably rung on the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

Despite deceptive appearances, the British were far from luxuriating in Philadelphia while Washington and his army suffered at Valley Forge. Every public building was used to house two thousand sick and wounded British and Hessian soldiers. The army was placed on half-rations, and there was a shortage of medical and hospital supplies that caused tension between the British and the Hessians. Unable to obtain supplies, the city became a prison for as many as fifty thousand inhabitants and troops.

Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy
The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire (2013)