{"id":1599,"date":"2013-07-04T06:30:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-04T13:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/?p=1599"},"modified":"2013-07-01T13:30:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-01T20:30:23","slug":"history-of-the-fourth-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/2013\/07\/04\/history-of-the-fourth-of-july\/","title":{"rendered":"History of the Fourth of July"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taken from\u00a0http:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/july-4th<\/a><\/p>\n

The Birth of American Independence<\/h2>\n

When the initial battles in the\u00a0Revolutionary War\u00a0broke out in April 1775, few colonists desired complete independence from Great Britain, and those who did were considered radical. By the middle of the following year, however, many more colonists had come to favor independence, thanks to growing hostility against Britain and the spread of revolutionary sentiments such as those expressed in Thomas Paine’s bestselling pamphlet “Common Sense,” published in early 1776.\u00a0 On June 7, when the\u00a0Continental Congress\u00a0met at the\u00a0Pennsylvania\u00a0State House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, the\u00a0Virginia\u00a0delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies’ independence. Amid heated debate, Congress postponed the vote on Lee’s resolution, but appointed a five-man committee–including\u00a0Thomas Jefferson\u00a0of Virginia,\u00a0John Adams\u00a0of\u00a0Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of\u00a0Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of\u00a0New York–to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain.<\/p>\n

On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (the New York delegation abstained, but later voted affirmatively). On that day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that July 2 “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival” and that the celebration should include “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.” On July 4th, the Congress formally adopted the\u00a0Declaration of Independence, which had been written largely by Jefferson. Though the vote for actual independence took place on July 2nd, from then on the 4th became the day that was celebrated as the birth of American independence.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Early Fourth of July Celebrations<\/h2>\n

In the pre-Revolutionary years, colonists had held annual celebrations of the king’s birthday, which traditionally included the ringing of bells, bonfires, processions and speechmaking. By contrast, during the summer of 1776 some colonists celebrated the birth of independence by holding mock funerals for King George III, as a way of symbolizing the end of the monarchy’s hold on America and the triumph of liberty. Festivities including concerts, bonfires, parades and the firing of cannons and muskets usually accompanied the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence, beginning immediately after its adoption. Philadelphia held the first annual commemoration of independence on July 4, 1777, while Congress was still occupied with the ongoing war.\u00a0George Washington\u00a0issued double rations of rum to all his soldiers to mark the anniversary of independence in 1778, and in 1781, several months before the key American victory at Yorktown, Massachusetts became the first state to make July 4th an official state holiday.<\/p>\n

After the Revolutionary War, Americans continued to commemorate Independence Day every year, in celebrations that allowed the new nation’s emerging political leaders to address citizens and create a feeling of unity. By the last decade of the 18th century, the two major political parties–Federalists and Democratic-Republicans–that had arisen began holding separate Independence Day celebrations in many large cities.<\/p>\n

July 4th Becomes A National Holiday<\/span><\/p>\n

The tradition of patriotic celebration became even more widespread after the War of 1812, in which the\u00a0United States\u00a0again faced Great Britain. In 1870, the U.S. Congress made July 4th a federal holiday; in 1941, the provision was expanded to grant a paid holiday to all federal employees. Over the years, the political importance of the holiday would decline, but Independence Day remained an important national holiday and a symbol of patriotism.<\/p>\n

Falling in mid-summer, the Fourth of July has since the late 19th century become a major focus of leisure activities and a common occasion for family get-togethers, often involving fireworks and outdoor barbecues. The most common symbol of the holiday is the American flag, and a common musical accompaniment is “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the national anthem of the United States.<\/p>\n

How do you and your family celebrate the fourth of July?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taken from\u00a0http:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/july-4th The Birth of American Independence When the initial battles in the\u00a0Revolutionary War\u00a0broke out in April 1775, few colonists desired complete independence from Great Britain, and those who did were considered radical. By the middle of the following year, however, many more colonists had come to favor independence, thanks to growing hostility against Britain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-informative","category-just-for-fun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1599"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1601,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions\/1601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}