Today We Celebrate Our Independence

Hello fellow history lovers. Instead of a usual today in history type blog, since you all know what happened today, I thought instead I would share some of my favorite links to historical sites & articles relevant to Independence Day, including former posts here. Enjoy & have a Happy 4th of July!!

Read the Declaration or listen to it here, The Declaration of Independence Read Aloud.

Learn about the process of independence on former Fun with History posts, Moving Toward Independence, and the declaration of independence here, Declaring Independence.

Did you know that Thomas Jefferson apparently wrote subjects instead of citizens when writing the Declaration? The AP had a recent article about it: Thomas Jefferson made slip in Declaration.

A piece on how far we’ve come and how far we have to go to achieve a nation that is truly racially independent, Fourth of July, 1776, 1964, 2010.

Myths about the Fourth of July: The Fourth of July and Other Myths of Independence.

Adrian Tinniswood’s piece on the impact of the English Civil War on its American colonies and how it shaped a people that 130 years later fought for independence here, America’s Revolution: The Prequel.

NPR’s suggestions to create the perfect music list to celebrate our independence, A Mix for America.

We are a nation of immigrants and the NY Times has a great Room for Debate blog post on how immigrants proclaim their love of the US in How We Adopted the Fourth of July.

How could we forget about Betsy Ross today, when we hold our flag most dear? The Historiann writes about her in Stars & Stripes Forever.

The History Channel has a video today-in-history about our independence, This Day in History.

How about some fun facts about the Fourth of July? These are great to share while waiting for the fireworks to start:  Facts for Features: The Fourth of July.

And finally, a historical round up of America’s Independence, July 4th.

An Unlikely Revolution

As we near Independence Day, I have been thinking about the American Revolution and the improbable reality that the 13 British colonies in North American became the United States. Just getting representatives from all 13 colonies to agree in declaring independence (after battles had already began) defied the logic of the colonies’ relationship with each other.

Each colony had a negative view of the others, and this became more exaggerated the farther away a colony was from another (say Massachusetts and the Carolinas). They went to the multiple Continental Congress meetings wary of each other’s goals and motives. And many representatives came from colonies whose population barely supported independence (some had populations with large percentages of loyalists to Great Britain).

And then we consider that these barely united colonies actually defeated the British. How illogical was that? That those colonists pulled together in militias and joined a barely funded was able to beat the most powerful military in the world seems impossible today. Everyone who supported the Revolution faced great odds. Many men lacked appropriate weapons, some even lacked shows. A handful of women, disguised as men, even joined battles and fought the Red Coats. More women boycotted British goods and instead create their own goods and clothing.

And after we won, the U.S. still pushed through. The original government system, held together under the Articles of Confederation, proved unable to govern the 13 former-colonies, now-states. The leaders of the nation recognized the flaw, met to revise the Articles and instead created an entirely new government system with the Constitution. They changed it all, with a document that could be changed with amendments and could be interpreted a multitude of ways (as current times easily demonstrate). And the nation respected this new government. The nation survived.

In a time of great partisan strife, wars, recession, and environmental disasters, remembering that our nation’s beginning emerged out of difficult times with a people divided seems more relevant than ever. And since that time, we have faced a multitude of difficulties and continued to survive. On this Independence Day-eve,  let’s forget the disagreements and instead as a nation remember the odds we faced some 200+ years ago.

Happy Independence Day!

Hello everyone!

Short post today! Today is, of course, the celebration of our nation’s independence from Great Britain. The Second Continental Congress actually voted for independence on July 2, but on July 4 the Declaration of Independence was approved and would quickly spread throughout the colonies.

You can read the Declaration of Independence here: Declaration

My blog also includes several posts about independence: Declaring Independence and Moving Toward Independence

Other important events that happened today in U.S. history: in the Civil War the Confederate Army surrendered Vicksburg to the Union Army in 1863, President Calvin Coolidge was born in 1872, and the first Pacific cable, between San Francisco and Manilla, is opened by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903.

Enjoy the fireworks and barbecues, but don’t forget the importance of this historical day!