The story of July 4th is messier than you remember
7/2/202634 min
Devastating compromises. Midnight rides. A nailbiter vote. Statue toppling riots… and the very real possibility of death. This July 4th, we're taking you inside the making of the Declaration of Independence and how, against all odds, a single document introduced the world to a new kind of nation.
Guests:
Walter Isaacson, professor at Tulane University and author of The Greatest Sentence Ever Written.
Denise Kiernan, author of Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration and Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Rund Abdelfatah· Host0:14
June 1776.
Speaker 30:17
Fire. [cannons firing] Fire.
Denise Kiernan· Guest0:21
[cannons firing] All these different things had been brewing, to make a bad tea joke.
Rund Abdelfatah· Host0:26
One year into the Revolutionary War, things were not looking good for the newly formed Continental Army. A guy named George Washington had been put in charge of it, and he was kind of on a losing streak.
Walter Isaacson· Guest0:40
You have all these people fighting and dying.
Denise Kiernan· Guest0:43
Things are beginning to come to a head.
Rund Abdelfatah· Host0:46
Washington was stationed in New York, where the British were closing in fast.
Denise Kiernan· Guest0:52
[cannons firing] Ships were coming in from England, and it was looking as though New York was going to fall.
Walter Isaacson· Guest1:00
[cannons firing] At a certain point, I suspect they're sort of saying, "Okay, remind me again. What are we fighting for?"
Rund Abdelfatah· Host1:09
They needed a rally cry to commit people to see the fight through, come what may. So in the face of mounting odds and setbacks, some in the Continental Congress decided they needed a declaration of independence.
Denise Kiernan· Guest1:24
This is who we are. This is a laundry list of what you've done, and I can't be in this relationship anymore.