The Declaration of Independence

The Continental Congress voted to break from Great Britain on July 2, 1776, and approved the text of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, but it took weeks for the news to spread throughout the new country and even longer to reach the country they were breaking from and the countries with whom they hoped to find alliances. Along the way, people learned the news from printed broadsides, newspapers, public readings, and letters from friends. I’m joined in this episode by Dr. Emily Sneff, author of When the Declaration of Independence Was News.

Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Yankee Doodle,” performed by the U.S. Army Chorus, featuring MSG Michael White and SSG Matthew Bell of The Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps; the composition and audio are in the public domain. The episode image is the Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence, printed in John Dunlap’s Philadelphia shop on the night of July 4, 1776; the image is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress.

Additional Sources:

• “Declaration of Independence (1776),” The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
• “Diary of John Adams, volume 3: Wednesday, May 15, 1776,” Adams Papers Digital Editions.
• “Virginia’s Independence Resolution, May 15, 1776,” Colonial Williamsburg.
• “Delegate Discussions: The Lee Resolution(s),” by Emily Sneff, The Declaration Resources Project, Democratic Knowledge Project, June 07, 2018.
• “Jefferson's ‘original Rough draught’ of the Declaration of Independence,” reconstructed by Julian Boyd, from: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Vol. 1, 1760-1776. Ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950, pp 243-247.
• “The Declaration of Independence and the Pursuit of Equality,” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
• “Watch How (Slowly) News of the Declaration of Independence Spread in Real Time,” by Ben Panko, Smithsonian Magazine, July 11, 2017.
• “Rare Book of the Month: A Revolutionary Woman and the Declaration of Independence,” by Wendi Maloney, Timeless: Stories from the Library of Congress, Library of Congress Blogs, May 19, 2018.
• “Mary Katherine Goddard's Declaration of Independence,” by Mark Boonshoft, New York Public Library, June 29, 2016.

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