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Additional resources for this issue of History Now
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Fourth of July
Instead of trying to provide a definitive list of books, articles, and websites relating to the Declaration of Independence, this list offers some sources of information on the processes by which the United States began a tradition of celebrating the anniversaries of significant events in the new nation's history.
Here are some books and articles you'll want to begin
with:
Armstrong, James W. "The Glorious and Unsafe Fourth,"
American Heritage 10, no. 4: 42-3, 92-4. A brief
but useful summary of the ways that America has celebrated
its birthday.
Purcell, Sarah J. Sealed with Blood: War, Sacrifice,
and Memory in Revolutionary America. (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002). Examines the
ways Americans found to honor the memory of the Revolution
in the nation's early years.
Reed, John F. "The First Celebration." Valley Forge
Journal 3, no. 3 (1987)): 181-4. Excerpts from letters
describing Independence Day 1777 in Philadelphia.
Travers, Len. Celebrating the Fourth: Independence
Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic.
(Amherst.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997).
On the Web, there's a real treasure. American University's chief librarian James R. Heintze has compiled a comprehensive Fourth of July Celebrations Database, which provides information and links that will give you just about every bit of information you need about the evolution of this public holiday and the myriad ways in which it has been celebrated:
http://gurukul.american.edu/heintze/fourth.htm
This PBS website links you to texts of Fourth of July addresses by Presidents Lincoln, Kennedy, George W. Bush, and Franklin Roosevelt:
http://www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/presidents.html
For other patriotic anniversaries that Americans celebrated in the late eighteenth century:
See this website for a depiction of a painted silk banner, fringed on three sides, that was carried by the Society of Pewterers of the City of New York in the July 23, 1788 Federal Procession, which celebrated New York State's ratification of the federal Constitution. The banner is now part of the collections of The New-York Historical Society:
http://luceweb.nyhistory.org/luceweb/item_detail_enlarge.htm?qmkey=503902
The website for Colonial Williamsburg provides a lesson plan for teaching about the colonial reaction to the 1765 Stamp Act and its repeal. The lesson plan includes contemporary prints and speeches:
http://www.history.org/history/teaching/tchcrone.cfm
Also see:
Richardson, E. P. "Stamp Act Cartoons in the Colonies." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 96, no. 3 (1972): 275-97. An excellent discussion of cartoons dealing with the Stamp Act and its repeal.
Your local historical society can, of course, help you
find materials on past celebrations in your community.
The following articles offer interesting examples of the
ways that Americans have celebrated the Fourth of July
in specific localities and situations, ranging from wagon
trains on the prairie to a Grand Tour of Europe:
Armstrong, James W. "The Glorious Fifth of 1845." Michigan
History 74, no. 4 (1990): 50-5. The story of a legendary
anti-temperance celebration in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Hansen, Dagny B. "July Fourth, 1789: First Independence
Day Celebration on the North American Pacific Coast."
American West 13, no. 4 (1976): 32-4. The crew
of the ship Columbia Rediviva observes the holiday off
Vancouver Island.
Hay Robert P. "Britons in New York on Brother Jonathan's
Birthday." New-York Historical Society Quarterly
53, no. 3 (1969): 273-82. British travelers record the
ways that Americans celebrated independence from the
king before the Civil War.
Hay, Robert P. "'Thank God We Are Americans': Yankees
Abroad on the Fourth of July." Indiana Magazine of
History 63, no. 2 (1967): 115-23. Examples of celebrations
of Americans abroad throughout the first half of the
nineteenth century that are cited in this article come
from Europe, the high seas, and the Pacific islands.
Huff, A. V. Jr. "The Eagle and the Vulture: Changing
Attitudes toward Nationalism in Fourth of July Orations
Delivered in Charleston, 1778-1860." South Atlantic
Quarterly 73, no. 1 (1974): 10-22. Reflections of
the growing sectional crisis in holiday oratory in a
major Southern city.
"Looking Backward: Celebrating The Fourth Of July."
Chicago History 7, no. 2 (1978): 120-2. Excerpts
from Chicago newspapers about Fourth of July celebrations,
1840-1925.
Martin, Charles W. and Martin, Charles W. Jr. "The Fourth
of July: A Holiday on the Trail." Overland Journal
10, no. 2 (1992): 2-20.
There is a good deal of very interesting material on the reactions of Frederick Douglass and other African American leaders to the notion that "Independence Day" had relevance to Americans of color.
This excellent webpage, part of the PBS's "Africans in America" website gives the full text of Douglass's 1852 speech, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927.html
See also:
Foner, Philip S. "Black Participation in the Centennial
of 1876." Phylon 39, no. 4 (1978): 283-96.
Page, Brian D. "'Stand By the Flag': Nationalism and
African-American Celebrations of the Fourth of July
in Memphis, 1866-1887." Tennessee Historical Quarterly
58, no. 4 (1999): 284-301.
Quarles, Benjamin. "Antebellum Free Blacks and the 'Spirit
of '76.'" Journal of Negro History 61, no. 3
(1976): 229-42. A fascinating study of African American
attitudes in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Sweet, Leonard I. "The Fourth of July and Black Americans
in the Nineteenth Century: Northern Leadership Opinion
within the Context of the Black Experience." Journal
of Negro History 61, no. 3 (1976): 256-75. Discusses
celebrations up to 1910, examining alternative observances
on January 1, July 5, and August 1.
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