The American Collection (Ringgold)
''#1: We Came to America''
### *\#1: We Came to America*

*We Came to America* depicts the [Statue of Liberty](/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty "Statue of Liberty") as a Black woman holding a small child, surrounded in the water by escaped formerly enslaved people. The flame on the statue's torch has been mostly extinguished. The people in the water are flailing and screaming while a slave ship burns far in the background. Ringgold's daughter has noted that the Statue of Liberty was not constructed until several decades after the [Civil War](/wiki/American_Civil_War "American Civil War") and nearly a century after the [end of legal importation of enslaved people](/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade%23End_of_the_Atlantic_slave_trade "Atlantic slave trade#End of the Atlantic slave trade"), meaning this scene contains not only an alternate version of the statue, but also an alternate version of history.

*We Came to America* is in the collection of the [Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts](/wiki/Pennsylvania_Academy_of_the_Fine_Arts "Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts"), [Philadelphia](/wiki/Philadelphia "Philadelphia").


Is the scene meant to be a commentary on current social issues?