Heather Cox Richardson has written a succinct and helpful summary of our country’s beginning. Our history is complicated. It doesn’t help us move forward together as a country to cast dispersions on those with whom we disagree or who have different cultural and social biographies than our own. Our country has a long history of good times and bad times. It seems as if Charles Dickens’ opening lines in his 1859 Tale of Two Cities were written for us living here today. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Small Events Lead to Big Changes

Our astounding achievements and prosperity have lulled us into believing all is well, or not our personal problem if all is not well for some. Political squabbling, global warming, and cruel injustices inflicted on some have created a sea of systemic sludge. Bit by bit, we’ve sacrificed safety and community for convenience, profit, and mind-numbing pastimes. Like the frog in the pot, the environment is deteriorating right along with the lifestyles we once took for granted. Insurance companies are starting to refuse coverage in the aftermath of relentless wildfires. The demand for affordable housing exceeds the available supply. We are no longer safe in our own communities as mass shootings have become virtually a daily occurrence.

This is why the Fourth of July 2023 has me thinking about that poor frog. It adapted to its environment and continued to adapt until its life was in danger. I worry that we humans are doing the same thing. Solution? Be informed and read from a variety of sources. We can talk and listen to each other. Turn strangers into acquaintances and then, perhaps, friends. Get to know the people around you. Learn about our complicated past rather than trying to deny or gloss over the worst of times. That is the path to the spring of hope.

Thank You, Heather Cox Richardson

Here’s a summary of Heather Cox Richardson’s July 3, 2023, article about our earliest history.

• 1763 – The end of the French and Indian War led to an economic boom, as the French relinquished control of the western lands of North America, and expansion beyond the Appalachian Mountains presented new opportunities. The colonists owed a debt of gratitude to the British for their support throughout the war.
• 1765 – King George attempted to prevent another expensive war with the Indigenous people by prohibiting colonists from crossing the Appalachians. To recoup some of the costs of the previous war, the British Parliament imposed the Stamp Act, a tax on all printed materials.
• 1766 – In response to numerous protests, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and instead passed the Declaratory Act, giving Parliament authority to make binding laws that impacted the colonists. The colonist had neither voice nor vote in Parliament.
• 1767 – When this news reached Boston, MA, local groups boycotted taxed goods and raided warehouses owned by those suspected of breaking the boycott.
• 1768 – British troops arrived in Boston to restore order.
• March 1770 – British soldiers shot into a crowd of men and boys. Five died, and six others were wounded.
• May 1773 – The British Parliament attempted to bail out the East India Company by granting it a monopoly on all tea sales in the colonies, which would result in cheaper tea for the colonists, thereby justifying the tea tax.
• Fall 1773 – Ships full of East India tea sailed toward the colonies but turned away when they learned trouble was brewing. Except the ship is headed to Boston.
• December 16, 1773 – Colonists dressed as Indigenous people and held the famous Boston Tea Party. Parliament closed the Boston port.
• 1774 – Colonial delegates met in Philadelphia to discuss how to object to British tyranny, while others stockpiled weapons and supplies and created a system of men who could be ready to fight at a minute’s notice. British officials ordered the arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
• April 1775 – British soldiers set out for Lexington to arrest Adams and Hancock. Several dozen minutemen greeted them. Shots were fired. Eight residents were killed, a dozen more wounded. The British soldiers attempting to return to Boston were shot at by minutemen. Causalities included 73 dead British soldiers, 49 colonists killed, and numerous wounded on both sides.
• Spring 1775 – The Continental Congress convened and decided to establish the Continental Army, with George Washington appointed as its commander. Some of the delegates wrote to King George, blaming the troubles on the king’s men who dealt out excessively harsh treatment, forcing the colonists to arm themselves, but pledging their loyalty to the monarch. Before their attempts to achieve a peaceful outcome reached King George in the fall of 1775, he’d already declared the colonies to be rebelling against his authority.
• January 1776 – Thomas Paine wrote his “Common Sense” pamphlet, blaming their troubles on the king and rejecting the notion that an island could properly govern a continent. The document spread throughout the colonies, prompting people to call for independence.
• April 1776 – various states wrote their own declarations of independence. The Virginia convention asked the Second Continental Congress to declare the United Colonies free and absolved of all allegiance to the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain.
• July 2, 1776 – The Second Continental Congress passed the “Resolution for Independence.” It was officially adopted on July 4, 1776, marking the final break between the colonies and England and confirming the conviction that a nation should rest not on the arbitrary rule of a single person and their hand-picked advisors, but on the rule of law.

So it was decided. So it was written. May it continue to be so as we trudge through the sludge we’ve accumulated through the centuries, making amends for the wrongs, adapting to new realities, and working together to reach that spring of hope.

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By the mid-1700’s those immigrants concluded the oppression from the British Empire had become intolerable. Patrick Henry’s cry, “Give me liberty or give me death,” rang out and resonated with enough young men that we eventually gained our independence from Mother England. Ironically, today we count England as one of our strongest allies in the never-ending battle against evil and tyranny.

Millions and Millions of Immigrants

In the 1800s millions more immigrated into this new nation. Some were recruited as cheap labor to build the nation’s infrastructure. Others came to escape hardships in their home countries or in response to tales of fortunes to be made in America.

On my father’s side of my family, I am the second generation born in the U.S.A.  One branch of mother’s family got here 12 generations ago, over a century before there was a United States. The ancestors in the other branch of her family came from England around the time of Revolutionary War. That must have made for some interesting dinner table conversations.

In January 1776 English born political writer Thomas Paine soared into fame with the publication of his Common Sense pamphlet. He made a case for independence from England at a time when most colonists thought of themselves as part of the British Empire. He wrote about a new way of thinking. “Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe.”

Not Such a New World

All well and good, and prose that stirred up the sort of passionate patriotic fever we continue to witness now three-and-a-half centuries later. However, there is another part of the story we generally overlook. For starters, this “new world” was only new to Europeans. Others had been here for more centuries than anyone could calculate at that time.

Ever heard about Awashonks? Probably not unless you have Native American heritage or are a serious scholar of earliest American history. She was a female sachem – leader – among the Sakonnet tribe in Rhode Island. In her society women made decisions about the use of land, because land produced food, and food gave life; just as women give life through birth. People did not own land, though they did have a sense of who used what land to supply the basic necessities of life. The Europeans introduced the concepts of titles, deeds, and ownership of property.

Who’s Land?

In August 1671, Awashonks sent a letter to Plymouth Governor Thomas Prence about a council held in Plymouth a month earlier. In July the newly formed “Council of War” decided to march into her territory and force her into submission. Around a hundred English colonists claimed they had stakes in the Sakannet land, granted to them by their fathers, and surveyed and divided, without her consent.

Her name appears in official records from the 1600s more than any other Native American woman, but few school children learn it. She was married to Sakonnet sachem Tolony and assumed his role as sachem when he died.

Celebrate and Reconsider

This Independence Day we have much to celebrate. COVID-19, though not entirely eradicated, is less a threat than it was a year ago, at least among the fully vaccinated. The economy seems to be slowly improving. Children are again enjoying typical summer time activities.

Yet we also have serious challenges. You’d think the experiences of our ancestors would make us sympathetic to the plight of immigrants today. Desperate people continue to seek freedom from violent, oppressive and abusive situations in their home countries. Unless we descend from Native Americans or Africans brought here against their will on slave ships, most of us carry within us the DNA of immigrants. Often our ancestors came because doing so was their best hope of any kind of a decent life. That is the same reason modern migrants risk everything to come.

What kind of people have we become when we respond to poverty as a criminal and political problem rather than a social one? We’ve blamed the poor for being poor too long. Jesus is often quoted out of context for saying, “The poor will always be with you.” That statement gets used to justify ignoring the great economic injustices that trap and enslave people in grinding poverty. One side effect of generational poverty is generational mental health problems.

Wanted: Compassion

Did you know that if you apply for help to address mental illness you are restricted to $1,200 a month in income while you wait for help? Not much you can do with that amount of money today. Are you paying attention to how much it costs to rent an apartment or buy a house today?

Today’s homeless problems are an extension of tensions dating back to when the first European explorers saw this fertile, lush continent and started dividing it up among themselves, regardless of the impact on Indigenous people or the future vitality of the land. The rich owned land; everyone else tried to gain access to it.

Going Forward Together

Arguments, disputes, and wars over who has the right to control the land date back to the beginning of time. This year, as we wave those flags, set off those fireworks, chow down those hotdogs and hamburgers, we might also consider rethinking what it means to be patriotic. What do we mean when we proclaim liberty and justice for all? Who do we include in “all?” What lessons can we learn from our ancestors?

I’ve been fortunate to travel in many other countries and am always grateful to come through customs with my USA passport to return home again. I know how fortunate I am to possess a United States passport. Yet, I also know we’ve got some deep wounds festering from our collective past. I for one am grateful for the current trend to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about our history.

God bless America. And every other nation and every other people who share this global village.

Thank your for dropping by today. Some of the information for this post came from  Our Beloved Kin by Lisa Brooks. I hope you have a safe and joyous celebration of our country’s independence. If you enjoyed this, why not share it with a friend. If you got it from a friend, you can sign up for your own weekly free posts at How Wise Then.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures
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