Happy Birthday America! How it began

“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
– Words on the Liberty Bell

Around the middle of the 18th Century, the thirteen colonies which made up part of the English Empire in the New World, found it increasingly difficult to accept being ruled by a king sitting 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. They were tired of paying taxes but independence was only achieved step by step with painful effort. The inhabitants of the colonies could not forget that they owed allegiance to British citizens and to King George III.

A “Tea party” and a “Massacre” were the two events that drove fate forward. In addition to the general unrest, they united the people in the colonies. In 1767 an English-owned tea trading company lost a lot of money. To save the company, England imposed a tax on tea sold in the colonies in 1773. Partly as a joke, Samuel Adams and other Boston people dressed up as Indians and sank a load of India Company tea in Massachusetts Bay. King George III. found this less funny, and it didn’t make him want to abolish the tea tax. In Boston Harbor, British soldiers were taunted and pelted with stones by colony residents who believed the soldiers had been sent to watch them. As a result, the soldiers shot into the crowd and killed some citizens. The colony residents exaggerated the number of people killed and called the incident a Massacre.

Virginia took the first step towards independence by electing a committee to represent the colonies. This First Continental Congress met in September 1774. A list of complaints about the Crown was drawn up -the first document to formally separate the colonies from England. George Washington took command of the Continental Army and began fighting the British in Massachusetts. For the next eight years, the colonies fought with all their might in the War of Independence.

Meanwhile, a war of words had raged in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met and worked on a second version of the letter of complaint, and John Hancock, President of the Second Continental Congress, was the first to sign. The document, called the Declaration of Independence, was viewed as treason against the Crown and the 56 men who signed it were at risk of execution.

Independence Day is celebrated on July 4th, as this is the day the Continental Congress adopted the final version of the Declaration of Independence. From July 8th, 1776 until the following month, the document was read in public and people celebrated, wherever it was heard of. The following year, Philadelphia bells rang, ships fired cannons, and candles and fireworks were lit. But the War of Independence dragged on until 1783. In that year, Independence Day was declared an official holiday. In 1941, Congress declared July 4th a national holiday.

John Adams, a lawyer, first vice president, and second president of the United States was a member of the Second Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence. He wrote to his wife: “I believe that this day will be celebrated as a great anniversary for generations to come. It should be celebrated with pomp and parades, salute and sport, games and performances, bells, bonfires, and lights from one end of the continent to the other … “

John Adams may have predicted the later Independence Day celebrations or established this tradition with his words. Today, Americans have a day off every July 4th. You have picnics that last all day with favorite foods like hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, baked beans and all the trimmings. In the afternoon there is of course music, baseball friendlies, “three-legged races” (a popular race in which two runners are tied to each other by the legs to form a “three-legged” pair) cake and watermelon eating contests. In some cities there are marches for which people dress up as founding fathers who march in parades to the music of school bands. When it gets dark, people gather in the cities to see great fireworks.

The Declaration of Independence was first read in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today, at the Freedom Festival in Independence Hall, Americans in costumes recreate historical scenes and read the Declaration of Independence to the crowd. In Flagstaff, Arizona, Indians hold a three-day rodeo and dance around July 4th (“Pow-wow”). In Lititz, Pennsylvania, hundreds of candles made throughout the year are lit in the park at night and floated in the water while a Candle Queen is chosen. The USS John F. Kennedy ships full sail into Boston Harbor every July 4, with the Boston Pops Orchestra playing patriotic songs. Over 150,000 people can enjoy the fireworks over the water.

For most Americans, the sight and sound of a ringing bell represents freedom. This goes back to the Liberty Bell, which was rung in Philadelphia to mark the birth of the new country.

In 1752 the new bell arrived safely from England, but it cracked when the hammer first struck. Since they didn’t want to lose any time, the bell was not sent back to England, but rather a bell-maker from Philadelphia was commissioned to repair it. It was poured over twice before it could finally be used.

On July 4, 1776, the bell rang on the occasion of the acceptance of the declaration of independence. On April 16, 1783, she proudly proclaimed the declaration of peace and the newly won independence of the United States of America.

At every event of national importance, the Liberty Bell joined the voice of the general public with its harmonious sound: 1789, on the occasion of the election of George Washington; 1797 when John Adams was elected; 1799 on the death of George Washington; and in 1801 when Thomas Jefferson became president. On July 4th, 1826, the bell was nearly three-quarters of a century old and the nation whose birthday it had announced was a sprightly fifty. At that time the event was truly a happy one. Then, on July 8, 1835, during a funeral procession for John Marshall, Supreme Court Justice and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the big bell cracked.

Worried that the crack could destroy the historic bell completely, it was taken down from the tower. That’s when it got its name “Liberty Bell”. The bell never rung again. No one alive knows the voice of the Liberty Bill, it has not been heard since 1835. The crack that occurred at that time is prevented from expanding by a mechanical clasp inside.

A few years ago, the workshop in London, from which the original bell came from, made a friendly suggestion: They wanted to have the bell brought to England, melt it and cast it again at no cost to the United States. The keepers of the bell thought seriously before answering. Then they decided that the cracked Liberty Bell was a cherished symbol of America’s struggle for freedom. Just as the wrinkles and lines on a person’s face are a visible sign of all the efforts that person has already gone through, so the crack in the Liberty Bell reminds Americans that freedom for their country did not fall into their forefathers’ laps – on the contrary, some of it even broke. That is why those responsible at the London foundry thanked the American foundry for the generous offer, but declined and said: “We like the bell as it is, including the crack. It is an important part of our heritage. “