July 4, 2024 - a look back to 1776
TRANSPORTATION
It would take 10 to 14 days by horse to get from Boston to Philadelphia in 1776 or three days by boat (maybe).
If you were going by ship, you might also stop at Providence, Rhode Island, and New York (and maybe New Haven) on your trip.
How about from Charlestown, South Carolina, in 1776? About a week. (In 1776, Charlestown was the fourth largest city in the colonies, with about 12,000 residents.)
If you took a stagecoach, the average speed was about five miles per hour—but with stops along the way, it would take eight to ten days to get from any “distant” place to Philadelphia in 1776.
It also took a ship from London 6 to 10 weeks to reach Boston. (Note, these were not steamships - but boats with sails and time varied by windspeed.)
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Today, an Amtrak train would take about five hours from Boston to Philadelphia, and a flight would take about an hour (not counting security and arriving early at the airport).
Likewise, a flight from London to Boston might take 5 to 6 hours.
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AMENITIES
There wouldn’t be many amenities on any of the journeys in 1776. Maybe a stop at an inn and a pint of beer, perhaps some venison or farm-raised beef or pork
(Humor - there won’t be many amenities on a flight these days - maybe a cup of coffee and a week’s pay (in 1776 dollars) to get a sandwich on a flight.
For the colonists traveling to the Continental Congress - there were no actual hotels - no air conditioning - and few restaurants (travel was for the rich) in 1776 America.
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But there was a desire to be a country on its own terms—not as colonies of England—long miles across the sea.
There were many differences between America and Mexico / South America. Spain ruled Mexico with an iron hand—get the gold, get whatever else was valuable. England wanted a trade partner.
There was a three-way trade arrangement. (1) England shipped fabric, alcohol, guns, and finished goods to West Africa, where they traded those things for slaves.
(2) The ships were then loaded with slaves and shipped to the colonies (especially the southern colonies), where the slaves were bought at a slave market and put on plantations. There was so much land and so few workers.
(3) The ship owners then purchased sugar, tobacco, rice, molasses, and other goods - back to England. One other item was sailing masts. New England in particular, had long tall trees that were made into masts for shipbuilding.
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ALAS
Like too many enterprises, greed came into play. England wanted things to be cheaper. The slave ships wanted more money for their humans. The Americans wanted to make more money for their products - and to be self-governing.
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THUS - THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
(I am putting the entire declaration at the end - here is a shortened version:
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
And, the last paragraph:
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.
INDEPENDANCE DAY HUMOR
What did the colonists wear to the Boston Tea Party?
Tea-shirts.
What was the most popular dance in 1776?
Indepen-dance.
What does the Statue of Liberty stand for?
It can’t sit down.
If you cross a patriot and a dog with curly hair, what do you get?
A Yankee Poodle.
What ghost haunted King George III?
The spirit of ’76.
What do our flag and a sad candy cane have in common?
They’re both red, white and blue.
Was the Declaration of Independence written in Philadelphia?
No, it was written in ink.
Why did Paul Revere ride his horse from Boston to Lexington?
Because the horse was too heavy to carry!What is the most popular sport on the 4th of July?
Flag football.
What protest by a group of dogs occurred in 1772?
The Boston Flea Party.
What did a patriot put on his dry skin?
Revo-lotion!
Did you hear the one about the Liberty Bell?
Yeah, it cracked me up too!
Which colonists told the most jokes?
Punsylvanians!
What is red, white, blue and green?
A seasick Uncle Sam.What does the Statue of Liberty say when visitors leave?
“Stay in torch!”
What do you eat on July 5th?
Independence Day-old pizza.
What did Luke Skywalker say on the 4th of July?
“May the 4th be with you!”
Why did the corn on the cob go to the 4th of July parade?
Because it heard there would be a-maize-ing floats!
What was the wildest battle of the Revolutionary War?
The Battle of Bonkers Hill.
What are the most patriotic flowers?
Yankee Doodle Dandylions.
Why did the hot dog go to the 4th of July party?
Because it heard it was buns of fun.How come there aren’t any knock-knock jokes about America?
Because freedom rings.
What kind of tea did the American colonists want?
Liber-tea.
What did one American flag say to the other flag?
Nothing. It just waved.
Which flag is the most highly rated?
The American flag. It has 50 stars!
What do you call an American revolutionary who draws cartoons?
A Yankee Doodler.
Why were the first Americans like ants?
They lived in colonies.
What do you call an American drawing?
A Yankee doodle!
What happened as a result of the Stamp Act?
The Americans licked the British.
Here is the Declaration of Independence
HE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
In Congress, July 4, 1776
THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION
of the
THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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.--That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. 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.
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
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.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored 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.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. 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.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.
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So final notes
It was a radical statement back in 1776. Sometimes I worry about the future of our country. We have too much infighting and too much hatred. Let’s talk things over.
And, the the last line from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:
“That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
LOVE WINS
LOVE TRANSFORM
Karen Anne White, Fourth of July 2024
