INDEPENDENCE DAY AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE INDEPENDENT The United States of America on this year’s Fourth of July will be commemorating its 244 years of independence from the British ruling centuries ago. Independence Day is one of the most universally recognized American holidays which is marked on July 4 every year. The day commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the same date in 1776.
B
efore that date, all the 13 American colonies which are today referred as states were part of the vast British Empire. The 13 colonies include; Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia. The colonies were governed by various charters under the rule of the then King of England, George III. 134
l
The distance between the American colonies and the Great Britain was a six-week journey sailing across the Atlantic Ocean on wooden sailing ships. Due to this large distance and existence of a long period of partial governance, the colonists began to resist the British rule in the 1760s. Tensions and hostility began to grow and sometimes violent confrontations which resulted to deadly events such as the Boston Massacre of 1770 and the Battles of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill in 1775. Later, the Second Continental Congress secretly voted for the colonies to declare their independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776. Two days later July 4, the official wording for the Declaration of Independence was finalized and the document published. A month later, delegates from all the 13 colonies began signing it. Knowing well that the action would be treated as an act of treason by the Great Britain, the signatories declared the following at the end of the document, “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” The Declaration of Independence stated that the Colonies considered themselves a sovereign collection of states with each state fully independent and free from any allegiance to Great Britain. The
struggle was not yet over as it took the American Revolutionary War which was ended by the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The treaty ended the war on official terms and recognized American independence. From the history of Independence Day, it is important that you note the following; •
•
A lot of people fought and paid dearly for the freedom and independence we enjoy today. The current occupants of the U.S.A were not the original residents of the continent. Therefore, no one amongst us all is the original occupant of America; we all moved to America apart from those who are called the Native Americans.
THE POWER IS NOW MAGAZINE | JULY 2020
