BackStory

The following links and documents relate to the BackStory episode “Independence Daze: A History of July Fourth,” originally broadcast in July of 2008. You can listen to the entire episode here.

All Centuries

• Library of Congress’s collection of primary sources related to July 4th
• National Archives online exhibit of the history and travels of the Declaration
• Historical Fourth of July Celebrations Database compiled by Jim Heintze
• History News Network’s Top Five Myths About the Fourth of July
• A collection of “patriotic melodies’ from the Library of Congress
• “The Invention of the Fourth of July,” an essay by historian David Waldstreicher
• A collection of resources from the Gilder Lehrman Institute

18th Century

• “Making Sense of the Fourth of July,” an essay by Pauline Maier
• Why George Washington remembered July third
• Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams describing the first anniversary of independence in Philadelphia
• The Declaration of Independence at the National Archives
• Slave petition to the governing body of Massachusetts arguing for natural rights, 1774

19th Century

• David Blight’s article about the Douglass speech
• Orations on slavery and freedom by Jacob C. White and William H. Johnson at the Banneker Institute, Philadelphia, July 4th, 1859

20th Century & Beyond

• Op-Ed by the History Guys in the Richmond Times Dispatch
• Explosive audio piece about fireworks show planners
• PBS special on the celebration of July 4th in Washington, DC
• Michelle Obama’s July 4th message to military families