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 The
4th of July is the day we celebrate America’s
official split and freedom from Britain's rule
and the beginning of the American Revolution.
However, the actual series of events show that
the process took far longer than a single day.
The
original resolution was introduced by Richard
Henry Lee of Virginia on June 7, 1776, and called
for the Continental Congress to declare the United
States free from British rule. Three days later
a committee headed by Thomas Jefferson was appointed
to prepare an appropriate writing for the occasion.
The
document that we know as the Declaration of Independence
was adopted by Congress on July 4th, although
the resolution that led to the writing of the
Declaration was actually approved two days earlier.
All
of this had occurred with some of the delegates
to the Congress not even present. New York, for
example, didn't vote on the resolution until July
9th.
Even
more interesting is the fact that not a single
signature was appended to the Declaration on July
4th. While most of the fifty-six names were in
place by early August, one signer, Thomas McKean,
didn't actually sign the Declaration until 1781.
Nevertheless,
July 4th was the day singled out to mark the event
of the United States establishing itself as a
nation. Read more about it at www.fourth-of-july-celebrations.com/index.html.
You
think that was a long process…
In
June, we celebrated a lesser-known holiday, Juneteenth.
Juneteenth is the annual celebration of the abolition
of slavery. While the Emancipation Proclamation
went into effect on January 1, 1863 word did not
get to Galveston Texas until June 19, 1865, two
and a half years later when Major General Gordon
Granger and his regiment arrived there and announced
that the Civil War was over and all slaves were
free. The explanations for this delay are numerous
although unverified but the reactions to the profound
news, once acknowledged, ranged from pure shock
to immediate jubilation.
It’s
called Juneteenth because after years of being
legally and systematically excluded from the education
process in America, the concepts of dates and
numbering systems apparently weren’t so
clear to the slaves. Consequently, the holiday
now promotes unity and builds self-esteem through
reflection, education, and acknowledgement
of achievements. Read more about it at www.juneteenth.com/welcome.htm.
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