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When a musket ball struck the Marquis de Lafayette in the leg in the middle of a battle, he collapsed to the ground. But the wound didn’t stop him from getting back up and rallying his men so they could continue fighting the British.
The Liberty Walk holds statues of statesmen who gave everything for the pursuit of liberty, and the man who defied his king and crossed an ocean to become an American hero deserves a spot among them.
Before Lafayette fought in the American Revolution, the king of France had him arrested for trying to sail to America to fight for Washington. Lafayette, who was just 19 years old at the time, escaped and arrived in America.
He earned his fame in America gradually. Congress believed he was too young to command troops, but Lafayette persevered. He offered to fight for free to prove how highly he valued the colonists’ principles.
The Battle of Brandywine, where Lafayette was injured in the leg, established his reputation for resourcefulness and commitment to American liberty even when his life was at risk. He organized a strategic retreat, while seriously injured, to prevent the destruction of the American army on the battlefield.
After the battle, Lafayette became George Washington’s closest ally and stood by Washington amid the commander-in-chief’s many losses.
Lafayette camped at Valley Forge, where more than 2,000 soldiers died of disease and malnutrition in the winter of 1777–1778, and he witnessed the suffering of his men firsthand. He bought uniforms and muskets for the soldiers with his own money.
“In the place he occupies, he is surrounded by flatterers and secret enemies,” Lafayette wrote about Washington during his time at Valley Forge. “He finds in me a trustworthy friend in whom he can confide and who will always tell him the truth. Not a day goes by without his talking to me at length or writing long letters to me. And he is willing to consult me on most interesting points.”
As Washington’s confidant, Lafayette influenced some of the most important decisions of the war by working closely with America’s new French allies and developing the strategy for defeating Britain at Yorktown in 1781.
After Americans hailed him a hero of the American Revolution, Lafayette returned to France, where he once again displayed his commitment to liberty. Although Lafayette is not an American, the ideals he embraced and fought for were.
In France, he served as a moderate voice in what would become the National Assembly and as the commander of the French National Guard during the French Revolution. He took command of the National Guard after the attack on the Bastille — a symbol of the French crown’s excess and absolute authority — demonstrating the power of the people.
Lafayette also drafted the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen,” with the help of Thomas Jefferson. The document proclaimed that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights” and that the government’s role is “the preservation of the natural and inalienable rights of man.”
He acted in accordance with the words he wrote. Lafayette believed that because all men are created equal, slavery has no place in the world. He advocated for abolition throughout his career. He even attempted to convince Washington to support his plan for gradual emancipation in America and, later, put the plan into effect in South America’s French Guiana. Lafayette’s plans ultimately failed when Napoleon Bonaparte came to power and reinstated slavery.
Lafayette’s vision of liberty, which he learned fighting on the battlefield in America, eventually landed him in prison in France. But prison didn’t stop him either.
Fifty years after he fought for America, Lafayette travelled, at the invitation of President James Monroe, to see the nation he helped build. Americans rejoiced at his triumphant return and massive crowds cheered as he passed through all 24 states. His return to the states became a celebration of America’s fight for freedom in the early days of America’s new republic.
He advocated for the God-given rights laid out in the Declaration of Independence for the rest of his life. When he died, the United States government commemorated Lafayette as a true American hero with the same national observance and military honors Washington received.
America honored him like Washington when he died, so he deserves a place among America’s founders on Hillsdale’s Liberty Walk.
Alessia Sandala is a senior studying history.
