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The Statue of Liberty: France’s Side of the Story

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Rising high above the New York harbour, the copper-green Statue of Liberty can be seen from miles away. For many Americans, the majestic figure symbolises the country’s willingness to welcome immigrants—especially those fleeing persecution or other hardships in their homelands.

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However, the original purpose of the statue had nothing to do with immigration. Officially called Liberty Enlightening the World, the monument was given to America by France in 1875. The statue’s designers intended it as a symbol not of sanctuary, but of democracy. They hoped that the statue would inspire France to embrace democratic government, rather than continuing to be ruled by monarchs.

Democracy was not a new idea for mid-nineteenth-century France. In fact, back in 1776, France had supported the American colonies when they revolted against British rule and established their system of self-government. Thirteen years later, the French people launched a revolution of their own, overthrowing their king. Yet unlike the American Revolution, the French Revolution led to a series of unstable, temporary governments. By the mid-1860s, France was once again under the rule of an emperor.

While some French people supported the emperor, others wanted a government of elected officials. One of the most ardent supporters of French democracy was a professor named Édouard René de Laboulaye. Laboulaye was an expert on the US Constitution. He taught and wrote about it in depth. Laboulaye believed wholeheartedly that France, too, should one day have a democracy.

Laboulaye, however, did not want to force democracy through violent uprisings. Rather, he wanted to inspire change. In the early 1870s, he came up with an idea: the creation of a monument to the United States. Laboulaye believed that such a monument could help inspire change in several ways. First, it would memorialise France’s important role in the American Revolution. Second, it would honour the continued friendship between France and the United States. And finally, it would celebrate the democratic values embraced by the US government. Laboulaye hoped that by raising public awareness in these ways, the monument would gently nudge France towards a long-lasting democracy.

The design and symbolism of the monument needed to reflect these values. In Laboulaye’s vision, the monument would commemorate two landmarks of freedom in the United States: the Declaration of Independence and the Thirteenth Amendment, which, in 1865, had abolished slavery in the United States. Sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, a friend and colleague of Laboulaye’s, agreed to design the monument. Bartholdi decided to use a goddess-like figure to represent liberty. Liberty would hold a torch in her right hand, shining the light of freedom on the world. In her left, she would clutch a stone tablet, its surface inscribed with the date July 4, 1776—the date that the American Declaration of Independence was ratified. And beneath Liberty’s feet would lie broken shackles, representing the end of slavery in the United States.

The way the statue was eventually funded also supported Laboulaye’s vision. The statue was not paid for by the national governments of France and the United States, but by their people. Many ordinary French and US citizens donated money to help create the statue. When funds ran short, the newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer stepped in to help raise the final funds. In his newspaper the New York World, he published an appeal urging people to donate more money. In his plea, he wrote, ‘Let us not wait for the millionaires to give us this money. It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America.’

After many years of planning, fundraising and building, the statue was finally unveiled on 28 October 1886. Some estimates suggest that as many as a million people came out to see the statue’s dedication parade. It’s hard to know whether the statue sped France’s movement towards a democratic system, as Laboulaye had hoped. However, Lady Liberty soon became a national landmark to those wishing to find a new home and freedom in the United States.

🔥What is the text about?

• It is about how the Statue of Liberty helped the French establish democracy.
• It is about the early reception of the Statue of Liberty in the United States.
• It is about the original ideas and symbolism behind the Statue of Liberty.

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Medical Mystery

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In autumn of 1975, two mothers in the town of Lyme, in the US state of Connecticut, were desperate for answers that their doctors could not provide. Their families and others in the Lyme area were suffering from a mysterious illness, with symptoms such as headaches, skin rashes, swollen knees, fever and fatigue. The women contacted the Connecticut State Department of Health and the Yale School of Medicine for help. Two doctors from Yale, Allan Steere and Stephen Malawista, began an investigation that would result in a groundbreaking medical discovery.

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The doctors began by conducting individual examinations of each patient. They found patients of all ages were suffering from a set of symptoms rarely observed together. In particular, there was a high rate of arthritis, a painful joint condition. Blood samples revealed no virus or germ that offered a clue about the cause. 

However, Dr Steere and Dr Malawista found fruitful information in their interviews with patients: one quarter of them recalled a skin rash with a bull’s-eye pattern about four weeks before the arthritic symptoms arose.

Armed with this new clue, the Department of Health worked with the Yale doctors, conducting surveys to learn where the disease was most widely seen. It seemed that the majority of the patients lived in heavily wooded areas, away from the centre of town. Other similarities were soon discovered. The symptoms were nearly always experienced for the first time during summer. Most patients were people who spent a good deal of time outdoors, gardening, landscaping or playing. Crucially, some recalled having been bitten by a tick.

Ticks are small parasites that feed mostly on the blood of mammals and birds. Ticks burrow their mouths into their hosts, where they may remain for several days—long enough to transmit the mysterious illness. By 1977, investigators suspected that the deer tick, specifically, was responsible. People were asked to save any tick that bit them, and doctors preserved ticks they found on patients. The deer tick was indeed the common thread, but no one could say why it was causing the illness or how patients could be treated.

A scientist named Willy Burgdorfer later began inspecting the deer ticks that had been preserved by Lyme officials. In 1982, he discovered a specific type of bacteria, carried by the deer tick, that was causing the disease. This remarkable find prompted an important question: how did deer ticks acquire the bacteria in the first place? 

As reports of Lyme disease spread across the north-eastern United States, there was a new urgency to answer the question. Finally, scientists determined that the ticks picked up the bacteria from their hosts. As its name suggests, the deer tick often feeds on deer, carriers of the Lyme disease bacteria. Rodents, such as mice, were another usual food source for the tick, and they were also frequently carriers of the bacteria. Scientists concluded that the bacteria passed from wildlife to tick to human. All lived closely among one another in the area.

How could a disease from a common parasite spring up so suddenly? Many areas of the American north-east, including Lyme, Connecticut, were once farmland. The farmland was replanted with trees. After the forest grew in, the area was then developed with houses. Gradually, neighbourhoods pushed deeper into the habitat of deer ticks and, more importantly, the wildlife they fed upon. As humans encountered more ticks, they became more likely to contract the disease.

One of the remaining mysteries about Lyme disease is where and when it truly began. This puzzle may never be solved. Evidence now shows that Lyme disease has existed for a long time in different parts of the world. In 1883, a German scientist named Alfred Buchwald observed a skin rash in a patient suffering from what is now known to be Lyme disease. In addition, a 5,300-year-old mummy found in Europe contained the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. 

Regardless of the disease’s origins, its cause was successfully identified after the spike in cases of the 1970s. Today, Lyme disease—if caught early—is easily treated with antibiotics, thanks to the hard work of many scientists, doctors and patients.

🔥What is the text about?

• It is about how the correct treatment for Lyme disease was discovered.
• It is about how the cause of Lyme disease was identified.
• It is about how the historical origins of Lyme disease were determined.