Beecher was the New England son of one of that region’s sternest Calvinist ministers, Lysander Beecher. He followed in his father’s footsteps and became a Congregationalist minister. In 1847, Henry Ward Beecher became the pastor of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn which would soon become one of the largest congregations in the city.
He maintained his relations with his New England family, particularly with his sister Harriet Beecher Stowe who would write Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the most important anti-slavery novel leading up to the Civil War.
Beecher was an ardent Abolitionist and he campaigned zealously for the abolition of slavery. Although he came from a Puritanical background, he rejected his father’s Calvinism and preached a Gospel of Love. His preaching style also differed from his father’s. Henry Ward Beecher used humor and colloquial speech to reach out to his audience. This made him a popular pastor, and led to him being invited to speak at many churches outside of Brooklyn.
The year after he moved to Brooklyn, Beecher became involved in helping a father whose two daughters had escaped slavery but had been recaptured. Beecher raised $2,000 to pay for their freedom. Over the next decade and a half he would repeatedly intervene to help enslaved people. In 1856, Beecher allied with the Republican Party because of its anti-slavery stance and he campaigned for John C. Fremont. During the increasingly violent conflict over slavery in Kansas in the late 1850s, Beecher funded the clandestine shipment of Sharps rifles to anti-slavery men in that state. The press dubbed these weapons “Beecher’s Bibles.”
During the Civil War, Beecher toured Europe to build popular support for the Union cause. In April, 1865, Lincoln selected Beecher to travel to Charleston to preside over the ceremonial raising of the flag over Fort Sumpter. He was there when Lincoln was assassinated.
The 67th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment was recruited almost immediately after the attack on Fort Sumter. It was mustered into service on June 24, 1861. Three companies of the regiment drew from members of Henry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, earning the regiment the possibly derisive nickname “Beecher’s Pets.”
The 67th called itself “The First Long Island Regiment” because seven of its ten companies came from the City of Brooklyn on Long Island. Three companies came from Upstate New York. Newspapers referred to the regiment as the “Brooklyn Phalanx.”
The Brooklyn minister also stood strong for women’s rights, but he condemned some feminists who spoke in favor of female sexual self-determination, then dismissed as “Free Love.” In 1870, his own paramour, Elizabeth Tilton, told her husband that she was involved in a sexual relationship with their pastor Rev. Beecher. Her husband told Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Victoria Woodhull, a radical feminist publicist, found out about the affair from Stanton and decided to humiliate Beecher by exposing his hypocrisy to the public. In 1873. Plymouth Church retaliated against Tilton for telling people that Beecher had slept with his wife. The church’s action was criticized by the Council of Congregational Churches for not considering the evidence against Beecher, but he was repeatedly exonerated of the charges by his own church’s investigators.
Beecher’s status was diminished by the charges of sexual impropriety, but he continued on as pastor of Plymouth Church and he toured as a speaker in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Beecher died on March 8, 1887.
The sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward made a death mask of Beecher before he was buried in Brooklyn’s Green Wood Cemetery. Just a year after Beecher’s death, Ward was contracted to created the statue. He used the death mask to create a life-like rendering of Beecher’s face. The statue was unveiled in 1891.
Many “Civil War tourists” have seen other sculptures by Ward, including the statues of Major General John Reynolds at Gettysburg, Major General Winfield Hancock in Philadelphia, Major General Phil Sheridan in Albany, and Major General George Thomas in Washington. His work was among the most honored in late 19th Century America.
Behind Beecher’s statue is Cadman Plaza with the Manhattan Bridge rising in the far background. The building on the right is the Federal Building and Post Office.
Two children are shown at the right side of the statue. They represent Beecher’s involvement in children’s welfare.
The children are lifelike and heartwarming.
On the left side is an African American woman representing the many enslaved people Beecher helped. Modern critics have said that the scene places the Black woman in an inferior position to Beecher, presenting him as a White Savior.
From the Beecher monument, you face Brooklyn Borough Hall. When the building was finished in 1848, Brooklyn was an independent city and this was Brooklyn City Hall. In the 1860 Census, right before the start of the Civil War, Brooklyn had over 260,000 people and was the third largest city in the entire United States.
The hall’s exterior is made of Tuckahoe marble and you can see the subway entrance on the right.
In front of Borough Hall is a 19th Century fountain.
Here is a close-up of the fountain.
There is a historical marker on the building which incorrectly describes Borough Hall as “Brooklyn’s Oldest Building.” The borough has buildings from the 1600s and 1700s. It is not even within a hundred and fifty years of being the oldest building.
Substantial restoration was done on this historic structure in the 1980s. The building was the center of civic life in Brooklyn during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. Henry Ward Beecher, who played an important role in ending slavery and supporting the Union in the war, presided over a church not far from where his statue stands that worked for the rights of Blacks and women, but fell short on justice when its minister sinned.
If you visit, the statue and park are well-maintained. The area is very busy during weekdays, but on a weekend morning it is much more relaxed and quiet. There are many small eateries down Court Street, and Montague Street, right next to the subway entrance, is a major dining area with everything from pizza and bagels to fine cuisine. The statue is located on Johnson St. at Cadman Plaza. Subways within a hundred feet are the 2 and 3 at Borough Hall Station.
All photos taken by Pat Young in Sept. 2022.
