It is a visibly striking piece of art.
Steven Whyte’s Circle of Chains, the State of Florida’s Memorial to the Enslaved, depicts men, women, and children held in chains.
The bronze sculptures of six individuals encourages interaction. People can walk around it. Stare into vacant eyes. Feel the weight of the chains.
A woman barely clothed stands in front of the restored antebellum Union Bank building; shackled at the ankles, wrist and neck waiting to be auctioned.
A man bound in iron writhes on the ground; his eyes fixed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
A girl too young to understand what freedom or slavery is looks at the Florida Capitol while in her arms she carries the chains that enslave her.
There is no resistance evident in the life-sized figures until you come to the man whose back is scarred by the whip.
He has broken the chain that cuffs his wrist while holding on to the one that connects him to the little girl.
The sculpture “breathes history and reaches forward all at once,” Whyte said.
When commissioned to create the sculpture, Whyte told the Tallahassee Democrat he intended to memorialize unnamed individuals whose “weighty contributions to the United States” have gone unrecognized.
The challenge he said was to depict “the brutal reality of slavery yet still give hope for eventual healing.”
At a time when NPR and the New York Times separately report corporations are retreating from addressing racial inequities through diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and the Trump and DeSantis administrations either rolled back or significantly restricted DEI programs within the government, Florida quietly unveiled a memorial to honor the enslaved workers who built the Old Historic Capitol and Florida railroads, canals, and agriculture – the foundation of Florida’s 19th century economy.
The Florida Legislature approved spending $400,000 in 2018 to place a memorial to Florida slaves on the Capitol grounds. Sen. Daryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, sponsored the measure – it drew 35 cosponsors in the 40-member Senate.
“I am grateful he took the time and really made something that depicts the gravity and the indignity of slavery while also honoring the nameless, faceless individuals who suffered through it,” Rouson told the USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA.
The sculpture was unveiled on April 28 with no public notice or official comment.
A request for more information is pending with the Department of Management Services.
Other than a small, engraved plague dedicated to Africans who died on slave ships at the Tennessee Capitol there does not appear to be any state Capitol other than Florida’s that specifically recognizes and memorializes the contributions made by people held as slaves.
Circle of Chains is next to the Union Bank building, constructed in 1841, reopened after the Civil War as the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company for emancipated slaves, and now serves as an archive and research center for African American history.
The 2023 Memorial Park Act expanded the Capitol Complex across Monroe Street to establish a garden for memorials.
Rouson calls Circle of Chains an “excellent piece of public art,” for how it sparks reflection on a community’s unique identity.
“It is not to make anyone feel badly towards their predecessors. It is to memorialize, recognize and honor the men, women, and children that suffered the indignity and cruelties that slavery inflicted upon a race of people,” said Rouson, whose 17-years in the Legislature makes him the longest serving Democrat.
Though Circle of Chains was installed with little or no public notice, Rouson said the bipartisan Florida Legislative Black Caucus will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony when lawmakers return to Tallahassee for a week of committee meetings October 6.
Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman endorsed an official ceremony to highlight the sculpture’s installation.
“The enslaved men, women, and children who built this country deserve to have their experience remembered and their legacy honored,” Berman said.
A request for comment on whether the state will hold an official ceremony to unveil the sculpture publicly is pending with DMS, the state’s property manager.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him Twitter: @CallTallahassee
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Circle of Chains: Florida’s remarkable tribute to enslaved workers rises at Capitol
Reporting by James Call, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
