And now the hard part: revision. It's particularly tough to weed out one's own words, especially if you're "in love" with them. But out they must go because they can--and often do-- impede the flow of the story, even if otherwise lyrical.
I examine pace. This is a very suspenseful story--imagine being a rebel spy in love with the British officer she's spying on. And THEN becoming privy to one of the biggest plots in American history: the defection of Benedict Arnold. On top of that, the heroine, Rebecca, lives in constant fear that, if discovered, she'll be caught and hung. Ironically, her lover, ( a historical figure) is Major John Andre, spymaster for the British! The suspense must be modulated; the reader can't be racing all the time, though of course he/she should be flipping the pages quickly. But there's a need for occasional "rest stops" along the way for everyone--the reader, the characters--to take a deep breath before the next crisis.
And then, of course, there's the language. Without resorting to cliches, it's not so simple to describe a sunset or a tree or a person or an emotion. I'm constantly having to come up with unique descriptions--perceptions--of ordinary things. So I'm working on the next draft and, after that, likely several more.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
A Historical Novel About Jews During the American Revolution: Congregation Mikveh Israel: The Spanish-Portuguese...
A Historical Novel About Jews During the American Revolution: Congregation Mikveh Israel: The Spanish-Portuguese...: " In historic Philadelphia, just blocks from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, stands a modest red brick building. Unlike the be..."
Congregation Mikveh Israel: The Spanish-Portuguese Influence of America's Early Jews
In historic Philadelphia, just blocks from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, stands a modest red brick building. Unlike the better-known historic sites, Congregation Mikveh Israel, a Sephardic Congregation at 44 North 4th Street, tells the history of a miniscule group of refugees who arrived in America not long after the Pilgrims.
After Portugal re-conquered Brazil from the Dutch in 1654, twenty-three men, women and children fled Recife, Brazil for New York City, becoming the first Jews to set foot on American soil. All were descended from the victims of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions that, in 1492 and 1497, expelled the Jews, and charged that certain conversos –forced converts to Christianity --were “Crypto Jews,” who secretively practiced Judaism. Many conversos escaped. Their primary destination was Amsterdam, Dutch-occupied Brazil and the Dutch West Indies. Others settled in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire; still others in England and other European countries.
Over the next half-century, more of the “the Sephardic Diaspora” –sometimes vaguely referred to as the “Portuguese Hebrew Nation” --joined their fellows in America. But by 1700, their migration ceased. The American Jewish demographic changed, as Jews from Germany, Poland and other parts of eastern and central Europe –Ashkenazim--set sail for America shores. By 1720, they outnumbered Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. Still, the Ashkenazim observed the traditions of the Spanish-Portuguese until 1801 when a group broke off to form the first Ashkenazi synagogue in America, Philadelphia’s Rodeph Shalom.
Led by Nathan Levy, scion of a prominent New York merchant clan, in the 1730s Jews from New York began to migrate to Philadelphia, then the largest city in the American colonies, pulsing with commerce. By 1740, as recounted in Jacob R. Marcus’ three-volume work, “The Colonial American Jew,” about a dozen Jews began to worship in a private home; by 1770, Philadelphia’s Jewish community had grown to about 300, less than one percent of the city’s total population. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, as refugees from other cities flooded Philadelphia, the congregation, now formally named Mikveh Israel, grew to at least 500. The congregation had no rabbi—rabbis did not come to America until 1840 -or officiator until the arrival in 1780 of its first hazzan, Gershom Mendes Seixas, formerly of New York.
Though the congregation adhered to the Spanish Portuguese tradition, Mikveh Israel’s most notable congregants were Ashkenazim. Bernard Gratz, born in Silesia (now Poland), became its parnas (president). Prominent members included Polish-born Haym Salomon, financier of the American Revolution and the philanthropic Rebecca Gratz, daughter of Michael Gratz. They are buried in Mikveh Israel’s Spruce Street synagogue, a national historic site, along with Jewish patriots of the American Revolution.
Today, the Spanish-Portuguese are a dwindling subset of the Sephardic community, itself a sliver of American Jewry, representing between 4 and 8 percent of the Jewish population, according to the American Sephardi Federation. “Once used exclusively to refer to Jews from Spain and Portugal and their descendants, the term ‘Sephardic’ today encompasses Jews from North Africa, the Middle East and Asia—basically anyone who isn’t Ashkenazi,” says Devin Naar, professor of history and Jewish Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Although there are some variations, Sephardic synagogues are generally similar in layout. Seating is divided, with each half facing the other. The women are separated in the Orthodox tradition, seated behind the mechitza in the back rows or on a balcony. The reading desk rests in the middle or back of the room, rather than in the front. Most Sephardic synagogues use the prayer book of the Spanish Portuguese, but absent from the Spanish-Portuguese liturgy is any reference to the Kabala, used generally by the Eastern Sephardim.
Mikveh Israel’s furnishings reflect the majesty of its traditions. The chandelier is a replica of the many that hang from the ceiling of Amsterdam’s Portuguese Synagogue, the “mother congregation” of the Spanish Portuguese. The reading table is perched on a white marble platform, bordered on each side by two tall silver candlesticks. Nineteen Torah scrolls are wrapped in cloth, adorned with silver breastplates, crowns and bells, some crafted in the 1770s by Myer Myer, the great silversmith.
The congregation’s current membership, about 250 families, reflects the growing diversity of American Jewry. Most are Ashkenazim, drawn to the congregation because, “its unchanged traditions are lovely,” says member Betta Kolansky. Among the Sephardim, most hail from Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Gibraltar and Cuba; few, if any, are Spanish Portuguese. A number are African-American who were either born to Judaism or have converted.
Despite the changing demographic of the American Jew, Mikveh Israel remains faithful to the customs and liturgy of Spanish-Portuguese. That tradition, says its rabbi, Albert Gabbai, represents the “nobility of the Sephardim,” using the best Hebrew pronunciation, adhering to practices that are “exact, correct, orderly, on time, striving for perfection, dignity, and gravitas.”
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Guest Blogger: Spanish woman discovers that she's part Jewish, descended from Conversos
LUCENA, A CITY OF JEWS by
On Sunday afternoons my father, a librarian, would often sit in our living room, browsing the pages of encyclopedias, reading entries here and there. I knew better than asking him the meaning of a word.
“Look it up,” he would unfailingly say. I don’t remember how we came to discuss our last name, Lucena. I thought it was Arabic, not a stretch, considering that we come from the south of Spain.
“Lucena is not Arabic,” my father told me. “Somos Judíos. Somos muy Judíos,” We are Jews. We are very much Jews. The notion seemed so foreign and odd, I did not buy it. “Look it up,” he said.
It so happened that shortly after this, in 1992, Spain celebrated the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas, paired up with the acknowledgment and remembrance of another event of 1492, the expulsion of the Jews. That year, there were all sorts of exhibitions and publications honoring the contributions of Spanish Jews. I was living in Rio de Janeiro at the time and had befriended a Sephardic Jew, the wife of the Consul General of the Netherlands, who invited me to one such gathering. There, she introduced me to the writer of a book entitled, Raices Judías en España, Spanish Roots in Spain. Upon hearing my last name, the writer replied, “Oh, one of us.” I was stunned.
It did not take a lot of digging to discover that my father was right, Lucena was a Jewish name. In fact, his family was of Jewish ancestry on both sides, descendants of Converso Jews who did not leave Spain in 1492 but stayed, having converted to Catholicism. My grandfather, Emilio Lucena, came from the province of Cόrdoba, Spain, where his ancestors lived in a city that still bears our name.
Lucena is the Castilian form of Eliossana, Eli ossana, from the Hebrew אלי הושענא, meaning “God Saves Us.” Christian sources and Sephardic lore ascribe the foundation of the city of Lucena to the descendants of Japhet, a son of Noah. In fact, two of Japhet’s grandsons are supposed to have come to Spain. Tarshish gave Spain its biblical name, later Hellenized as Tartessos. Eliossana or Lucena is derived from Tarshish’s brother, Elisa or Elisha. There are even tales claiming that the patriarch Noah is buried near Lucena, in a mountain we call Mt. Aras, our very own Ararat.
Strategically located at the crossroads of Andalusia, amidst olive groves, Lucena was labeled “The Pearl of Sefarad” and “The Lost Jerusalem.” The medieval city played a central and unique role in Sephardic culture. Most Spanish cities had Jewish quarters, the so called Juderías. Lucena, however, was entirely populated and governed by Jews, its inhabitants having bought their freedom. The Muslims who ruled over much of Spain at that time, referred to it as Al-Yussana Ay-Yahudi, Lucena of the Jews.
Until the 10th ACE all existing yeshivas were in the Middle East. Lucena had the first European yeshiva and grew to be a beacon of Jewish learning and Talmudic studies. Isaac ibn Gayyat was its first gaon. Maimonides’s father is supposed to have attended the Lucena school. In the twelfth century, the invasion of the Almohads, a Berberic tribe from the North of Africa, marked the end of Lucena’s independence. The population was forcibly converted to Islam. Many fled and took up residence in Toledo. Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra wrote about the destruction. “My eyes cry for the city of Lucena…The tears of my eyes cry for a city free from stain…its people have been left as widows, orphans of the Law, without Scripture, the Midrash sealed, the Talmud sterile, the splendor gone…” Ferdinand the III, King of Castile, conquered Lucena in 1240, ending Muslim domination. Some Jewish exiles returned at that point. It is not clear how many Jews lived in the city by 1490. Sixty years later, the census records 15,000 inhabitants. By then, the people of Lucena were Christians and descendants of Conversos.
I have no idea whether my father’s ancestors were anusim, forced Converts to Christianity who kept their faith hidden, or whether they belonged to the ranks of the mesumad, who converted freely. From what I have learned, it really did not matter. One way or the other, Conversos were tainted by ‘the infamy of their Jewish blood.’ What is certain—because the Inquisition kept exacting records—is that the Lucenas suffered persecution. Some opted for exile, went to Portugal and fared no better. Several died at the stake, victims of religious and racial prejudice and intolerance.
“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare’s heroine wonders dismissingly; a rose is supposed to smell as fragrant with any other name. I could not disagree more. It does matter what a name means, where it comes from, and what it connotes. The story of Lucena and of the Lucenas have yielded a trove of history and legend, lost voices that revealed a forgotten inheritance and connections to roots buried deep in the soil of my country. These roots have illuminated pages of the past for me. Because of them, I no longer see that past in the same light.
Adelaida Lucena de Lower is revising a novel on 15 century Spain and the world of Conversos.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Jewish Settlers to America, Part II
Fifty years after the first Jews settled in New York, waves of immigration increased their numbers as members of “the Sephardic Diaspora” --Spanish-Portuguese Jews who had originally settled in Europe after the Inquisitions--also sailed to North American shores.
Before the outbreak of the American Revolution, Jews represented no more than 2,500 of the colonial population of 3 million. Yet, despite their paltry numbers, they had succeeded in creating ccongregations in New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Richmond, Charleston and Savannah, all modeled on the Spanish-Portuguese traditions that, with the exception of New York and Philadelphia, they have long since been abandoned.
By 1700, immigration patterns began to alter the Jewish demographic of the American colonies. The Spanish Portuguese remained in Europe where many built powerful dynasties, while Jewish immigrants from Germany, Poland and other parts of eastern and central Europe accelerated. By 1720 Ashkenazis outnumbered Jews with roots to the Iberian Peninsula. Before the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, Jews, who represented no more than 2,500 of the colonial population of 3 million, had already created congregations in New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Richmond, Charleston and Savannah, all modeled on the Spanish-Portuguese tradition. The Ashkenazis, with customs and a language (Yiddish) of their own, were active in the affairs of these synagogues, observing their customs. But tensions grew. In 1801, a group broke off from Philadelphia's Congregation Mitveh Israel to form Rodeph Shalom, the first Ashkenazi synagogue in the United States.
Before the outbreak of the American Revolution, Jews represented no more than 2,500 of the colonial population of 3 million. Yet, despite their paltry numbers, they had succeeded in creating ccongregations in New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Richmond, Charleston and Savannah, all modeled on the Spanish-Portuguese traditions that, with the exception of New York and Philadelphia, they have long since been abandoned.
By 1700, immigration patterns began to alter the Jewish demographic of the American colonies. The Spanish Portuguese remained in Europe where many built powerful dynasties, while Jewish immigrants from Germany, Poland and other parts of eastern and central Europe accelerated. By 1720 Ashkenazis outnumbered Jews with roots to the Iberian Peninsula. Before the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, Jews, who represented no more than 2,500 of the colonial population of 3 million, had already created congregations in New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Richmond, Charleston and Savannah, all modeled on the Spanish-Portuguese tradition. The Ashkenazis, with customs and a language (Yiddish) of their own, were active in the affairs of these synagogues, observing their customs. But tensions grew. In 1801, a group broke off from Philadelphia's Congregation Mitveh Israel to form Rodeph Shalom, the first Ashkenazi synagogue in the United States.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Guest Blogger: Tegan Kehoe on the Declaration of Independence
That the People May be Universally Informed of It: Reactions to the Declaration of Independence, 1776.
by Tegan Kehoe
Two hundred and thirty-five years ago today, on July 4th, 1776, the United States of America was born. Or was it? Many ideas that inspired the founding of the country had been around for centuries, and the Revolutionary War would not end until 1783. The Continental Congress decided to approve the Declaration on July 2, leading John Adams to write, “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”[1][2] Today, of course, Americans celebrate Independence Day on July 4, the day that Congress actually voted on and approved the document, and even at the time, people recognized it as a greatly symbolic occasion. All across the newly-declared country, people celebrated as the news was spread, and those celebrations, too, came over a period of time, so it could be said that America's first Fourth of July lasted for several weeks.
After the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock was responsible for distributing it. He sent a printed copy to each of the states and to General Washington.[3] With it, Hancock sent a letter explaining that Congress had decided that declaring independence was their only real option.[4] The letter also required the states and the military to determine ways to spread the news of the Declaration, “that the people may be universally informed of it.”[5]
Each state came up with their own way of proclaiming independence. Pennsylvania sent copies by express rider to places where elections were about to be held. Virginia ordered each sheriff to give a public reading of the Declaration at the door of his courthouse. In Rhode Island, it was read at town meetings. Several states left it up to the towns to decide how to make the Declaration known, but passed on the order to make the news as public as possible.[6] But many American people did not need government orders to spread the word. Many of the signers distributed copies to friends, family, and political colleagues before the public announcements were made.[7] Additionally, the Declaration of Independence was published in over thirty newspapers within a month of its completion, often on the front page. In New York, printer John Holt gave the Declaration its own sheet within his newspaper, saying his customers would want to hang it in their homes. Printers also sold the Declaration as a broadside, which is a printing on one side of a sheet of paper like a poster or flier.[8]
Both the ideas in the Declaration of Independence and the rhetoric used to express them were very familiar to most American colonists by 1776. Many colonists could read, and they had been exposed to the Declaration's ideas over and over in the preceding years. Between 1750 and 1766, more than four hundred separate pamphlets about the controversy between Britain and its American colonies were published in the colonies.[9] Many were stand-alone opinion essays, but some appeared as annual series, commemorating events such as the repeal of the Stamp Act.[10] Pamphlets sold for about a shilling, so they were affordable enough to reach wide audiences.[11] Newspapers were another way that Patriots (and Loyalists, those who sided with the Crown) spread their beliefs, and people who could not read often learned what was in the newspapers from friends or neighbors. Additionally, it was not at all uncommon for ministers to impart messages about liberty, rights, and even current events during church services.[12] Between all of these media, colonists had no shortage of exposure to patriotic language and themes.
The rhetoric of the revolution drew upon the European Enlightenment, Greek and Roman writers, and English legal thought.[13] Even grammar school students could reference the Classics, although their understanding was often superficial. Newspaper publishers and pamphleteers were very selective in the quotes they used, making well-known sources serve their purposes. In fact, the two sides, Patriot and Loyalist, had a similar repertoire, from the English law commentator William Blackstone to literary uses of the Roman statesman Cato the Younger.[14]
All of this meant that at public readings, whether they were in churches, government buildings, or common greens, the people knew what they were listening to, and they reacted to it. While fireworks were not a part of the festivities in 1776, many people placed lit candles in all of their windows, and several celebrations included rifle salutes or bonfires.[15] In Boston, the Declaration was read from the balcony of the Town House (now called the Old State House) to a crowd of people gathered on what was then called King street – that day, it was changed to State Street, and the name is still used. Originally, Sheriff William Greenleaf was scheduled to make the oration, but he was so quiet that Colonel Thomas Crafts had to assist with his booming voice. After the reading was complete, the people had a celebratory riot, including a bonfire in the middle of the street. The people tore down and burned any symbol of Great Britain they could find, from small wooden crowns used as ornaments to the lion and unicorn statues that had stood nearly eight feet tall atop the three-story building.[16] Philadelphia also had a bonfire by their State House, but burned smaller symbols.[17]
Perhaps the only city that can top Boston was Huntington, Long Island, where the people created an effigy of King George III and lined its cloak with gunpowder. The effigy was then exploded and burned.[18] The people of Baltimore also made an effigy of King George III, but they burned it the conventional way, without explosives.[19] Since the body of the Declaration is made up of a list of the king's abuses, with language like, “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people,” it is no wonder that he was the target of symbolic destruction. In New York city, the people tore down a lead statue of the king mounted on a horse. It had been put up only six years earlier. One newspaper declared that the statue “laid prostrate in the dirt... the just deserts of an ungrateful tyrant!” and noted that the lead was going to be made into bullets, “to assimilate with the brains of our adversaries.”[20]
Riotous celebrations of the Declaration of Independence took place all over the new country; however, a significant number of the celebrations were formal, decorous, and downright stately. Many of the more organized observances were those done by militias. On July 8, the reading for the New Jersey Provincial Congress and locally stationed troops took place in Trenton, New Jersey. Newspaper accounts described the event as a “great and solemn occasion,” and the people received the news with “loud acclamations” rather than fiery displays.[21] Newport, Rhode Island also combined a civil reading with an event for the brigade stationed there, which included a round of thirteen cannon shots at Fort Liberty and gunshots in thirteen divisions. According to the newspapers, “The Declaration was received by joy and applause by all ranks. The whole was conducted with great solemnity and decorum.”[22] Perhaps those who were involved in military celebration had a deeper understanding of the fact that the war was now likely to last much longer. When there was hope of reconciliation with Britain, there had been hope of a short war.
Some colonists, both Loyalists and moderate Patriots, felt that the Declaration of Independence was timed poorly or that it was too extreme.[23] Many Loyalists also took it as a sign that they were no longer welcome in their home towns, especially if they lived in radical areas such as Boston, and some of them left for Canada or even for England. However, for many others, the Declaration of Independence was exciting, inspiring, and hopeful. As historian Bernard Bailyn put it, “By then Americans had come to think of themselves as a special category, uniquely placed by history to capitalize on, to complete and fulfill, the promise of man's existence.”[24] In other words, many people truly believed in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and they believed, rightly or wrongly, that this new country could truly deliver these things to its citizens.
****
Tegan Kehoe is a history writer and museum and non-profit professional, whose blog “Cambridge Considered: the colorful history of Cambridge, MA can be found at http://www.cambridgeconsidered.blogspot.com
[1]Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, "Had a Declaration..." [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3 1776.
[2]A shout-out to my readers in Ithaca, NY, where the fireworks display is always a day or two before the Fourth. Perhaps we're on to something – beyond just avoiding competition with bigger displays!
[3]Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), 154.
[4]Maier 155.
[5]Quoted in Maier 155.
[6]Maier 158-9.
[7]Hazelton, John. The Declaration of Independence: Its History. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1906. Reprint: New York, Da Capo Press, 1970), 220-222.
[8]Maier 159.
[9]Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Enlarged Edition. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1992), 8.
[10]Bailyn 6.
[11]Bailyn 2.
[12]Bailyn xi.
[13]Bailyn 27-30.
[14]Bailyn 25.
[15]Maier 157.
[16]Hitchings, Sinclair and Catherine F. Hitchings. Theatre of Liberty: Boston's Old State House. (Boston: Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, 1975).
[17]How the Declaration was Received. New York Times. July 4, 1871.
[18]Maier 158.
[19]How the Declaration was Received. New York Times. July 4, 1871.
[20]American or Constitutional Gazette: the Journal. Vol. I No. 6 July 23, 1776.
[21]Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet, or The General Advertiser. Vol. V No. 247, July 15, 1776.
[22]Pennsylvania Evening Post, Vol. II No. 239, August 1, 1776.
[23]Hazelton 224.
[24] Bailyn 20.
by Tegan Kehoe
Two hundred and thirty-five years ago today, on July 4th, 1776, the United States of America was born. Or was it? Many ideas that inspired the founding of the country had been around for centuries, and the Revolutionary War would not end until 1783. The Continental Congress decided to approve the Declaration on July 2, leading John Adams to write, “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”[1][2] Today, of course, Americans celebrate Independence Day on July 4, the day that Congress actually voted on and approved the document, and even at the time, people recognized it as a greatly symbolic occasion. All across the newly-declared country, people celebrated as the news was spread, and those celebrations, too, came over a period of time, so it could be said that America's first Fourth of July lasted for several weeks.
After the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock was responsible for distributing it. He sent a printed copy to each of the states and to General Washington.[3] With it, Hancock sent a letter explaining that Congress had decided that declaring independence was their only real option.[4] The letter also required the states and the military to determine ways to spread the news of the Declaration, “that the people may be universally informed of it.”[5]
Each state came up with their own way of proclaiming independence. Pennsylvania sent copies by express rider to places where elections were about to be held. Virginia ordered each sheriff to give a public reading of the Declaration at the door of his courthouse. In Rhode Island, it was read at town meetings. Several states left it up to the towns to decide how to make the Declaration known, but passed on the order to make the news as public as possible.[6] But many American people did not need government orders to spread the word. Many of the signers distributed copies to friends, family, and political colleagues before the public announcements were made.[7] Additionally, the Declaration of Independence was published in over thirty newspapers within a month of its completion, often on the front page. In New York, printer John Holt gave the Declaration its own sheet within his newspaper, saying his customers would want to hang it in their homes. Printers also sold the Declaration as a broadside, which is a printing on one side of a sheet of paper like a poster or flier.[8]
Both the ideas in the Declaration of Independence and the rhetoric used to express them were very familiar to most American colonists by 1776. Many colonists could read, and they had been exposed to the Declaration's ideas over and over in the preceding years. Between 1750 and 1766, more than four hundred separate pamphlets about the controversy between Britain and its American colonies were published in the colonies.[9] Many were stand-alone opinion essays, but some appeared as annual series, commemorating events such as the repeal of the Stamp Act.[10] Pamphlets sold for about a shilling, so they were affordable enough to reach wide audiences.[11] Newspapers were another way that Patriots (and Loyalists, those who sided with the Crown) spread their beliefs, and people who could not read often learned what was in the newspapers from friends or neighbors. Additionally, it was not at all uncommon for ministers to impart messages about liberty, rights, and even current events during church services.[12] Between all of these media, colonists had no shortage of exposure to patriotic language and themes.
The rhetoric of the revolution drew upon the European Enlightenment, Greek and Roman writers, and English legal thought.[13] Even grammar school students could reference the Classics, although their understanding was often superficial. Newspaper publishers and pamphleteers were very selective in the quotes they used, making well-known sources serve their purposes. In fact, the two sides, Patriot and Loyalist, had a similar repertoire, from the English law commentator William Blackstone to literary uses of the Roman statesman Cato the Younger.[14]
All of this meant that at public readings, whether they were in churches, government buildings, or common greens, the people knew what they were listening to, and they reacted to it. While fireworks were not a part of the festivities in 1776, many people placed lit candles in all of their windows, and several celebrations included rifle salutes or bonfires.[15] In Boston, the Declaration was read from the balcony of the Town House (now called the Old State House) to a crowd of people gathered on what was then called King street – that day, it was changed to State Street, and the name is still used. Originally, Sheriff William Greenleaf was scheduled to make the oration, but he was so quiet that Colonel Thomas Crafts had to assist with his booming voice. After the reading was complete, the people had a celebratory riot, including a bonfire in the middle of the street. The people tore down and burned any symbol of Great Britain they could find, from small wooden crowns used as ornaments to the lion and unicorn statues that had stood nearly eight feet tall atop the three-story building.[16] Philadelphia also had a bonfire by their State House, but burned smaller symbols.[17]
Perhaps the only city that can top Boston was Huntington, Long Island, where the people created an effigy of King George III and lined its cloak with gunpowder. The effigy was then exploded and burned.[18] The people of Baltimore also made an effigy of King George III, but they burned it the conventional way, without explosives.[19] Since the body of the Declaration is made up of a list of the king's abuses, with language like, “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people,” it is no wonder that he was the target of symbolic destruction. In New York city, the people tore down a lead statue of the king mounted on a horse. It had been put up only six years earlier. One newspaper declared that the statue “laid prostrate in the dirt... the just deserts of an ungrateful tyrant!” and noted that the lead was going to be made into bullets, “to assimilate with the brains of our adversaries.”[20]
Riotous celebrations of the Declaration of Independence took place all over the new country; however, a significant number of the celebrations were formal, decorous, and downright stately. Many of the more organized observances were those done by militias. On July 8, the reading for the New Jersey Provincial Congress and locally stationed troops took place in Trenton, New Jersey. Newspaper accounts described the event as a “great and solemn occasion,” and the people received the news with “loud acclamations” rather than fiery displays.[21] Newport, Rhode Island also combined a civil reading with an event for the brigade stationed there, which included a round of thirteen cannon shots at Fort Liberty and gunshots in thirteen divisions. According to the newspapers, “The Declaration was received by joy and applause by all ranks. The whole was conducted with great solemnity and decorum.”[22] Perhaps those who were involved in military celebration had a deeper understanding of the fact that the war was now likely to last much longer. When there was hope of reconciliation with Britain, there had been hope of a short war.
Some colonists, both Loyalists and moderate Patriots, felt that the Declaration of Independence was timed poorly or that it was too extreme.[23] Many Loyalists also took it as a sign that they were no longer welcome in their home towns, especially if they lived in radical areas such as Boston, and some of them left for Canada or even for England. However, for many others, the Declaration of Independence was exciting, inspiring, and hopeful. As historian Bernard Bailyn put it, “By then Americans had come to think of themselves as a special category, uniquely placed by history to capitalize on, to complete and fulfill, the promise of man's existence.”[24] In other words, many people truly believed in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and they believed, rightly or wrongly, that this new country could truly deliver these things to its citizens.
****
Tegan Kehoe is a history writer and museum and non-profit professional, whose blog “Cambridge Considered: the colorful history of Cambridge, MA can be found at http://www.cambridgeconsidered.blogspot.com
[1]Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, "Had a Declaration..." [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3 1776.
[2]A shout-out to my readers in Ithaca, NY, where the fireworks display is always a day or two before the Fourth. Perhaps we're on to something – beyond just avoiding competition with bigger displays!
[3]Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), 154.
[4]Maier 155.
[5]Quoted in Maier 155.
[6]Maier 158-9.
[7]Hazelton, John. The Declaration of Independence: Its History. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1906. Reprint: New York, Da Capo Press, 1970), 220-222.
[8]Maier 159.
[9]Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Enlarged Edition. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1992), 8.
[10]Bailyn 6.
[11]Bailyn 2.
[12]Bailyn xi.
[13]Bailyn 27-30.
[14]Bailyn 25.
[15]Maier 157.
[16]Hitchings, Sinclair and Catherine F. Hitchings. Theatre of Liberty: Boston's Old State House. (Boston: Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, 1975).
[17]How the Declaration was Received. New York Times. July 4, 1871.
[18]Maier 158.
[19]How the Declaration was Received. New York Times. July 4, 1871.
[20]American or Constitutional Gazette: the Journal. Vol. I No. 6 July 23, 1776.
[21]Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet, or The General Advertiser. Vol. V No. 247, July 15, 1776.
[22]Pennsylvania Evening Post, Vol. II No. 239, August 1, 1776.
[23]Hazelton 224.
[24] Bailyn 20.
Others British Views on the Declaration of Independence
"I take the view that the whole thing was for the future good of Western Civilization...What would have happened if the American rebellion had not succeeded? No Louisiana Purchase, a third of North America would have been French and most of the rest would have belonged to Spain. Just imagine. Even if the Colonies had eventually been granted Dominion status as was given to Canada and Australia and New Zealand, that dominion would have been nothing like the United States as it is today. You can talk of luck and chance - and "Manifest Destiny" if you like, but I believe that the United States had to be, for all its mistakes and faults in the past 50 years, or longer, it is the main bulwark of the Western World. We in Britain should be grateful. I write as someone who well remembers world war 2. I am of the "Got any Gum Chum?" generation, though I never actually uttered those words myself."
And here's another post by British novelist Trevor Bloom:
If the American revolution had not happened, it is quite probable that America would be like Canada or Australia today, (or even South Africa and India) ie fiercely independent and democratic nations which retain strong political and emotional ties to the mother country. It's not such a big deal, as any Canadian or New Zealander would agree. Americans have developed a powerful set of mythologies to sustain the righteousness of thei rebellion, but most non-Americans would be hard pushed to say what the US has in terms of economic or political freedoms that Canada or Australia don't have.
From another British contributor:
Happy 4th of July everybody! What happened happened. There were many reasons why it happened and many explanations how the Americano - Franco alliance of convenience prevailed, which will no doubt be debated long into the future, including no doubt in this very forum. Had the matter been decided by plebiscite vote rather than force of arms it would have probably been closer than Pres. G. W. Bush's two elections. But that was back in the latter 18th century. Yes, the Brits and the Yanks (only don't call our Southerners that, esp. my South Carolina belle bride) "duked" (forgive the pun) it out twice, the last time not quite two full centuries ago. In the last century and a tenth, however, Tommy Atkins and G.I. Joe have fought as comrades vice formen, against the Chinese "Boxers" in China, the Boche in WW-I, the Nazis, Eyeties and Japanese in WW-II, the NKPA and PLA in Korea, and the Iraqis (twice), AQI, and Taliban and their ilk in SWA for the last 20 years. I consider the ANZAC participation with us in 'Nam against the VC and the NVA/PAVN to have been the "British" contribution to that conflict/campaign. That's a lot more combat time as friends than as foes. Nowadays in the early 21st century, I consider the Anglo-American "special relationship" to be the last "great white hope" of Western, Christian, democratic, free society against the renewed onslaught of an alien, hostile religion, culture and lifestyle. So on this 4th of July 2011 this Hiberno-Yank says, "Happy 4th of July," "God bless America" and "God save the queen"
And here's another post by British novelist Trevor Bloom:
If the American revolution had not happened, it is quite probable that America would be like Canada or Australia today, (or even South Africa and India) ie fiercely independent and democratic nations which retain strong political and emotional ties to the mother country. It's not such a big deal, as any Canadian or New Zealander would agree. Americans have developed a powerful set of mythologies to sustain the righteousness of thei rebellion, but most non-Americans would be hard pushed to say what the US has in terms of economic or political freedoms that Canada or Australia don't have.
From another British contributor:
Happy 4th of July everybody! What happened happened. There were many reasons why it happened and many explanations how the Americano - Franco alliance of convenience prevailed, which will no doubt be debated long into the future, including no doubt in this very forum. Had the matter been decided by plebiscite vote rather than force of arms it would have probably been closer than Pres. G. W. Bush's two elections. But that was back in the latter 18th century. Yes, the Brits and the Yanks (only don't call our Southerners that, esp. my South Carolina belle bride) "duked" (forgive the pun) it out twice, the last time not quite two full centuries ago. In the last century and a tenth, however, Tommy Atkins and G.I. Joe have fought as comrades vice formen, against the Chinese "Boxers" in China, the Boche in WW-I, the Nazis, Eyeties and Japanese in WW-II, the NKPA and PLA in Korea, and the Iraqis (twice), AQI, and Taliban and their ilk in SWA for the last 20 years. I consider the ANZAC participation with us in 'Nam against the VC and the NVA/PAVN to have been the "British" contribution to that conflict/campaign. That's a lot more combat time as friends than as foes. Nowadays in the early 21st century, I consider the Anglo-American "special relationship" to be the last "great white hope" of Western, Christian, democratic, free society against the renewed onslaught of an alien, hostile religion, culture and lifestyle. So on this 4th of July 2011 this Hiberno-Yank says, "Happy 4th of July," "God bless America" and "God save the queen"
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