Commissioned for use by the speaker of Pennsylvania’s Assembly from prominent Philadelphia silversmith Philip Syng, Jr., this inkstand served that legislature during turbulent times in the state’s history. When the inkstand was new, conservative Quaker elites led Pennsylvania’s legislature. By the beginning of the American Revolution, political control had shifted to up-and-coming radical forces. As the 19th century dawned, division between the state’s urban east and rural west grew wider. Throughout these times, the inkstand remained on the Assembly speaker’s desk until changing aesthetic taste forced its retirement around 1840. As part of the Independence Hall Assembly Room’s furnishings, the Syng inkstand also bore witness to the creation of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. The inkstand reflects the symbolic acts of signing these documents, acts that represent the risks inherent in personal service to an exceptional common cause that resonates throughout modern human history. Ultimately, while it was made and used during a transformative era in state and national political history, the Syng inkstand further reflects a deep current in American history: human enslavement. Shortly before the inkstand’s creation, Syng advertised that his enslaved man, Cato, had escaped from the shop. The newspaper announcement described Cato’s clothing as including “old leather breeches”, attire commonly worn by colonial artisans. Did Cato perform skilled labor in the silversmith’s shop? Perhaps the conditions that compelled Cato to take a deadly risk in seeking freedom and the environment that spawned the inkstand were one in the same.