Declaring Independence

The Fourth of July is a celebration of our Declaration of Independence from England. However, we are not only celebrating the document itself but also the courage of those founding fathers. By affixing their names to that document, they were all committing acts of treason against their King.
Despite this monumental step they all took for us, many of them are unknown and unheralded. Honor them by taking a few minutes to learn their names and little about them. The National Park Service has a nice website with brief biographies here.

Intrigued? Want to know more? Check out the following Sno-Isle Libraries books.

The signers: the fifty-six stories behind the Declaration of Independence

by Dennis Brindell Fradin

The signers of the Declaration of Independence: a biographical and genealogical reference

by Della Gray Barthelmas

Signing their lives away: the fame and misfortune of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence

by Denise Kiernan & Joseph D'Agnese.

The Library of Congress has a wonderful website devoted to the Declaration of Independence. You can visit it here.
It is really amazing the historical documents you can view online, including Thomas Jefferson’s “Notes on Debates and Proceedings on Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation”.

Take a look at the top of the Library of Congress page, there is a very interesting timeline.

Notice that July 2nd was the date that the Continental Congress actually declared independence. In fact, John Adams wrote that July 2nd would be the day celebrated in history.

Also notice that it states that most of the signers did not sign until August 2nd. Almost a full month after the day we celebrate.

I suppose all countries need a “birthday” and we had to pick some date. Calling the Declaration our "birth certificate" fits so well.

However, one could just as easily pick the day the Constitution was ratified. After all, that is when our country, as we know it today, was officially defined. Of course, identifying that date is just as slippery.

Personally, I like to think of the Declaration of Independence as our divorce papers, filed by our founding fathers. We then had to endure a long legal battle (aka The Revolutionary War) before we could truly declare ourselves independent.

Nate - Snohomish Library Reference