Add Your Name to the Freedom Seekers Bell

Sponsorship Level: $1,000 (x100)

The largest bell in the carillon, weighing 2,072 lbs. and tuned to F for ‘freedom,’ will be dedicated to all freedom seekers – those men and women who took control of their own destiny by leaving their enslaver. Some of the most enigmatic and brave freedom seekers, like Dred Scott and Ellen Craft, gave the abolitionist movement tangible, first-hand accounts of the evils of slavery and helped inspire others to take up the abolitionist cause.

Add your name to the Freedom Seekers Bell

Cover image: A group of freedom seekers, labeled “contrabands” in this May 14, 1862, photograph, gather at a house in Cumberland Landing, Virginia. Contraband was a term widely used in the U.S. military during the Civil War to describe people who escaped enslavement or who affiliated with Union forces. Courtesy: Library of Congress.

Explore the benefits of sponsorship.

This $1,000 sponsorship level (up to 100 opportunities available) helps fund the casting and installation of the largest bell in the carillon dedicated to all freedom seekers. Your sponsorship comes with these perks and benefits from the National Bell Festival:

Your name or company cast in bronze together with other sponsors on the Freedom Seekers Bell. Order and placement on the bell will be determined alphabetically by last name of donor.

Your name or company listed in the National Bell Festival guide for one year.

Access to the “meet the bells” reception before installation in the tower.

The Freedom Seekers Bell will be cast by Royal Eijsbouts out of the Netherlands, founders of some of the finest carillon bells in the world.

Section image: A community-sponsored bell encircled with the names of donors sits within the Peace Carillon at the Church of Our Lady in Aarschot, Belgium.

Join the sponsors.

Cast your name in bronze on the Freedom Seekers Bell along with these donors and contributors.

Reginald Edward ‘Guppy’ Smith, Sr.²

¹In honor of
²In memory of

Section image: Freedom seekers stand with Union soldiers in this May 1862 photograph near Yorktown, Virginia. The farm house in the background had been Lafayette’s headquarters before the battle of Yorktown during the Revolutionary War and was the Civil War headquarters of Gen. Fitz John Porter. The split image of the woman behind the left washbasin was a result of movement during the photograph’s exposure. Courtesy: Library of Congress.