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Hello! I realize that I am a day late on this issue, but we were traveling last week and I needed a day to readjust before jumping back into the routine. I hope you are all having a lovely first week of July!
In this issue, I want to continue what we were discussing last time (Juneteenth) by looking at the 4th of July. As you know, the 4th is Independence day in the United States and I want to dig a bit deeper into exactly who that Independence was and is for. Yes - it is the day that the country won independence from the British Crown, but the day has morphed into a celebration of personal freedom and a show of patriotism.
In these times, when we have white Chrisitan nationalists attempting to take over the government of the United States, the 4th of July holds strange meanings. Join me on this journey through the history, the mythology, and the future of Independence Day in the U.S.
Independence Day
In the United States, the 4th of July is dedicated to the celebration of the Declaration of Indpendence, which was declared on 4 July 1776. This day is set aside to mark the date the United States was officially free from the rule of King George III and any future monarchs of Britain. The observance is about freedom of one nation from rule by another, but since that date in 1776, the citizens of the U.S. have morphed the holiday into a day more about patriotism than freedom. In order to better understand where the patriotism might come from, let’s take a look at the document that started it all.
A close reading
For the full text of the Declaration of Independence, click here: archives.gov
“When in the course of human events…”
The document begins with a statement of separation from the British monarchy, stating that it is basically good for people to separate from governments that are not doing what they need to for the masses. This is what the 13 colonies were dealing with at the time and the document is a list of grievances to the point.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This is the most famous line in the document and the one that most citizens recall. Assumed in the moniker ‘men’, at this time, would have been straight, white, landholding (read: rich), men, and this is where we come upon the first disconnect. The writers did not specify the above, but it is implied due to the ways in which the colonies were setup. White men with power were in charge and were seeking freedom from the crown. Women and people of color were not included in the ‘created equal’ part of the sentence, nor were those indigenous people who were here before the Brits arrived.
Beyond that famous sentence, the paragraph goes on to explain that governments are to be created by and for the people who are governed, which flies in the face of the nature of the monarchy. This paragraph goes on to state the following:
“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
This sentence struck me as pretty interesting considering that the men who crafted the Declaration were also, on the most part, enslavers. I realize that they were talking about suffering evil from the monarchy, but discussing abolition here hits in a very distinctive way when we know that they were not considering the abolition of slavery or the rights of anyone other than themselves. They were fighting against the tyranny that they felt being governed by Britain, but they did not see the suffering they were causing others in order to maintain their homes and livelihoods on the North American continent. Nor did they consider the suffering they continued to cause the populations of indigenous people who were living on the land long before the pilgrims set foot here.
Before continuing forward into the list of grievances, the paragraph ends with the following:
“The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”
So many ironies.
Next up, from the list of colonist grievances toward the monarch, here are a few of the most interesting:
“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.”
Let us consider the current state of our American Judiciary system and the ways in which the Conservatives are trying to institute patriarchal rule via this system. Is this not going back to what the monarch was doing in 1776?
“He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.”
As did the colonists when they arrived in North America.
“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
Let us consider the 6th of January 2021 and what a group of angry (mostly) white, (mostly) dudes did at the Capitol and then proceeded to blame others for the violence and attempted overthrow of the government. Seems like the ‘Indian Savages’ mentioned above were most likley scapegoats of the time. It is amazing, but sadly not suprising, that the line above is in one of our founding documents.
“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.”
“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”
Let us consider the current state of policing in America and how it has been militarized in a way that mimics what the crown was doing here. History loves to repeat itself.
“For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.”
Interesting.
“For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.”
Hello, McConnell? I think Thomas Jefferson might like to have a word with you. He wasn’t perfect (Slavery at Monticello) but as the author of the Declaration he would definitely be unhappy with the current state of Congress.
“We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.”
Found in the penultimate paragraph, this sentence sums up the grievances. And then, the final paragraph spells out exactly how the colonies are to be freed from rule by Britain and to carry on as a set of United Colonies.
The Declaration of Independence is what won our freedom from the crown, but we would go on for centuries fighting within, for the freedom of our people. Although the men who signed the Declaration and many of their affluent brethern came out of 4 July 1776 as free men, the great mass of individuals in the colonies were still not free. This is why, when we celebrate the 4th, we are often made to feel like we have to be patriotic, but that freedom was not just handed to the majority of us on the date that we celebrate.
It would take another 89 years before Black men were free, a point made in Frederick Douglass’ 5 July 1852 speech ‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?’ (Listen to the Descendents of Douglass read and discuss the speech here.)
It was 144 years before the 19th amendment gave (white) women the right to vote and 189 years before the voting rights act secured the right for all women to cast a ballot. The ERA is still to be won to give women full equality.
Now, in the United States, there are people trying to overturn the civil rights won in the 1960s, but yet we continue to observe Independence Day. We continue to move forward a bit and then back a bit. Someday we will achieve equality for all and then the famous sentence will be truer than written - that ‘all HUMANS are created equal’.
Further links
The NPR reading of Frederick Douglass’ speech, by his descendents, was inspired by Whitman, Alabama - “an experiment in using documentary and poetry to reveal the threads that tie us together—as people, as states, and as a nation.”
What to the Modern Black American is the 4th of July? from Cheyney McKnight of NotYourMommasHistory.
YouTuber I love this week: Beau of the Fifth Column
The Dangers of Legislating the Curriculum - relates to our earlier issue on critical race theory and how legislation across the country is going to seriously harm educators.
More about the Declaration of Independence from the Monticello site.
Thank you for reading the Research Notes Newsletter! Now it’s YOUR turn. Please share your thoughts along with any other questions or suggestions for future research, in the comments. I look forward to lively discourse.
Love the asides...