Why We Celebrate The 4th of July: A Refresher Crash Course
Hi everyone and Happy Independence Day!
Yes, today is the anniversary of America becoming independent from Great Britain. History is exciting stuff, right? We didn’t like being under the rule of a kingdom a whole ocean away, so we did something about it.
WHY DID PEOPLE COME HERE?
WELL let me tell you. The people of England were suffering from religious prosecution. To escape said prosecution, they decided to come to the New World and start a life in the new English colonies. The first colony was founded in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, which you have probably heard of. It’s the classic setting of the Disney movie Pocahontas, which is (loosely) based on the true story of her courage to foster connections between the English settlers and the indigenous people. That’s a WHOLE other story though, so we’ll cut that short here.
INTO THE NEAR FUTURE
So we’ve heard of Jamestown, but don’t forget about the Pilgrims! They also sought the religious freedom that the New World offered and settled in what they called Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. You probably remember that famous picture of Plymouth Rock in your US History textbooks.
These colonists started to plant successful crops, build cities, and colonize further throughout the east coast of the North American continent. At a point in the early 1700s, African Slaves made up a larger portion of the colonies population, and this begins America’s Greatest Shame. Which, in it’s own right deserves way more than a blurb in this post. If you’d like to learn more about African slavery in America, visit these sites:
By 1770 more than 2 million people worked and lived in the 13 British colonies. And that brings us VERY close to the day in history we celebrate every July. For the sake of knowing, here are the original 13 colonies:
- Delaware
- Pennsylvania
- New Jersey
- Georgia
- Connecticut
- Massachusetts Bay
- Maryland
- South Carolina
- New Hampshire
- Virginia
- New York
- North Carolina
- Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
I THINK IT’S TIME FOR A REVOLUTION!
SO here we are in the early 1770s, and America is TIRED of Britain and their taxes. They came here for freedom from Britain, and they still felt their grip on their lives. To end this, they started the American Revolution (Also known as the American War of Independence and the Revolutionary War). There was fighting, tea thrown into the Harbor, alliances, deaths, and of course a Declaration of Independence written by our very own Thomas Jefferson.
Interestingly enough, independence was formally declared on July 2, 1776. John Adams believed this date to be “the most memorable epocha in the history of America.” Sadly though, he would be wrong. On July 4, 1776, Congress approved the final text of the Declaration. And this was the day that we would remember as Independence Day. Also funny enough, it wasn’t signed until August 2, 1776. BUT no one really cared, and July 4th was the date that stuck.
That wouldn’t be the end though, as that was just the Founding Fathers taking a stand and letting Britain know that we were done with being their colonies. The fight for independence continued through until 1783. The real signal that the war was over was October 1781, when General Cornwallis of Great Britain was surrounded and forced to surrender the British position at Yorktown, Virginia. Two years later in 1783, the Treaty of Paris made it all official: America was independent.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
In 1787 the Constitution was written during the Philadelphia Convention and signed into effect on September 17th 1787. This is where George Washington comes in. In 1789 he became the first President of the United States, serving two terms and establishing the precedent of the two term limit. Many years pass of change, more states were added, the Civil War happened, we finally acknowledge people of color and women to be included in the whole “We the People” thing, and here we are. 44 presidents later and we are still kicking. While it seems we have taken a long time to get here, we are still a very new country in terms of the rest of the world. We’ve had time to accumulate our moments of shame, and we have time to build those moments that will make us shine.
Happy 4th of July, the unlikely date we celebrate, and will celebrate, for years to come!
Sources:
Want a quick lesson of how the U.S. Government works? Check out this post.
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