Phrygian Cap

Lady Liberty stands on a pedestal wearing a Liberty cap

The Phrygian Cap, also known as the Liberty Cap, is a classical symbol for free citizens.

Background[edit]

The Liberty cap is of Phrygian origin, and belongs to classical times. It was granted to freedmen as a token of manumission from bondage. The Saxons of England used it as their ordinary head-dress, but without the meaning we attach to it. It was on American coins in 1783. The Bryges, a warlike people from the southwest shores of the Euxine, conquered the east of Asia Minor, which they called 'Brigia,' - afterwards changed to Phyrgia.

This people distinguished themseives from the primitive inhabitants by wearing their national cap as a sign of their independence, and it was stamped on their coins. The Romans adopted it, and, when a slave was manumitted, placed a small red cap called 'a pileus' on his head, proclaimed him a freedman, and registered his name as such. When Saturnius took the capital in 263, he hoisted a cap on a spear to indicate that all slaves who joined him should be free. When Caesar was murdered, the conspirators raised a Phrygian cap on a spear as a token of liberty. The Goddess of Liberty on the Aventine Mount held in her hand a cap, the symbol of freedom. In France, the Jacobins wore a red cap.

In England, the symbol of liberty is a blue cap with a white border; and Britannia is represented holding such a cap on the end of a spear. The American cap of liberty has been adopted from the British, and Is blue with a white border or bottom on which are thirteen stars. There is no positive regulation in regard to it beyond its shape and color, so far as America Is concerned.^[1]

The Phrygian Cap can be seen in the Seal of the United States Senate, adopted in 1886.

References[edit]

1. ↑ Origin and History of the American Flag and of the Naval and Yacht-club Signals, Seals and Arms, and Principal National Songs of the United States, with a Chronicle of the Symbols, Standards, Banners, and Flags of Ancient and Modern Nations, Volume 1