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.History: Fourth of July

Source of Recipe

Fourth of July Celebrations


Recipe Introduction

"Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness), it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government." Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), from the Declaration of Independence

Recipe Link: www.fourth-of-july-celebrations.com/

Independence Day: America's Birthday


Summertime: the smell of the barbecue, the roar of holiday crowds at events throughout the land, family, picnics and the beach. It's America's annual birthday party and everyone is invited.

---History of Independence Day---
Schoolchildren in America learn the basic history of the events surrounding the Fourth of July, but the details of this monumental occasion in American history somehow fall through the cracks.

Although July 4th is celebrated as America's official split from Britain's rule and the beginning of the American Revolution, the actual series of events show that the process took far longer than a single day. The original resolution was introduced by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia on June 7, 1776, and called for the Continental Congress to declare the United States free from British rule. Three days later a committee headed by Thomas Jefferson was appointed to prepare an appropriate writing for the occasion.

The document that we know as the Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress on July 4th although the resolution that led to the writing of the Declaration was actually approved two days earlier.

All of this had occurred with some of the delegates to the Congress not even present; New York, for example, did not even vote on the resolution until July 9th.

Even more interesting is the fact that not a single signature was appended to the Declaration on July 4th. While most of the fifty-six names were in place by early August, one signer, Thomas McKean, did not actually sign the Declaration until 1781.

Nevertheless, July 4th was the day singled out to mark the event of the United States establishing itself as a nation.

Only four American holidays are still celebrated on their proper calendar days: Halloween, Christmas, New Year's and Independence Day. Of all the secular holidays, the Fourth of July is the only one whose celebration date resists change. Even in more provincial times, suggestions to alter the day of the festival to the preceding Saturday or the following Monday when July 4th fell on Sunday were protested.

The feeling about the sanctity of America's Independence day was best expressed in a quotation from the Virginia Gazette on July 18th, 1777: "Thus may the 4th of July, that glorious and ever memorable day, be celebrated through America, by the sons of freedom, from age to age till time shall be no more. Amen and Amen."

The Star-Spangled Banner, our National Anthem, has an origin nearly as colorful as the verbal description it contains. Francis Scott Key, a young lawyer and aspiring poet, wrote the now famous words during the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in September of 1814. What is often forgotten, however, is why, how and what Key actually witnessed that lead to the creation of those phrases.

During the war of 1812, the British were attempting to control American shipping and other trade activities. Major George Armistead, the commander of Fort McHenry, decided in the summer of 1813 that he wanted a flag so large "the British would have no trouble seeing it from a distance." Mary Young Pickersgill, a local "maker of colors," created this banner for him with her daughter's help.

Measuring 30x42 feet in size, with stars two feet from point to point, the flag used over 400 yards of bunting and actually had to be completed on the floor of the malthouse of a local brewery. This flag would, ultimately, be memorialized as "the star-spangled banner."

The following August, British forces entered Chesapeake Bay, invaded and captured Washington, burned the White House and set their sites on Baltimore. Those fabled words, " . . . and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there . . . " actually are an accurate account of what Key and the others saw on September 13th and 14th, 1814.

At roughly 7:00 a.m., the British fleet opened fire on the fort expending, during the next 25 hours, roughly 1500 rounds of heavy shells, each weighing in at roughly 200 pounds. Though set with time delay fuses which were supposed to explode after reaching the target, many detonated in mid-air. The British fleet also used the new Congrove rocket, which left an erratic red path across the sky as it sped towards its target.

Moved by what he had experienced, the lawyer-poet wrote down his observations in metre and rhyme on the back of a letter that he was carrying. The work subsequently was printed and circulated around Baltimore under the title "Defence of Fort M'Henry." As the poem gained popularity and was published in papers in other parts of the country, it was also performed in public.


The exact words of the "Star-Spangled Banner" are hotly debated. Francis Scott Key wrote several versions of the anthem, and the actual words were not contained in the formal documents raising the song to national status.

During one of the public performances, an actor first called the song "The Star-Spangled Banner." Although immediately popular, it was just one of a number of patriotic songs until it was adopted as our national anthem on March 3, 1931.