We are about to celebrate another Independence Day in these United States. I am not a born American but I became a citizen of this, my adopted country, as soon as I could. For myself, I found MY personal independence here in the Unites States of America.
Why does America inspire so many to LIVE a full and complete life?
Maybe it is because the earliest Americans had to really scrap with the Almighty King George III to have the freedom that I enjoy today.
For a glimpse of a possible answer we must go back to the 1700s and what propelled the then British citizens, the Colonists to rise up and say to King George III, “Hey Dude… Enough is enough!”
Did the colonists unanimously decide to be independent in one fell swoop?
No, they did not…
Here is an amazing fact about the unanimous signing of The Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin tried to establish The Albany Plan in 1754 and it was soundly defeated, so that The Declaration of Independence was unanimously signed was nothing short of a miracle. We are told that “this coming together happened very gradually”. It seems that the colonies had a series of meetings each priming them for compromise. It was this feeling of oneness that made them a solid block.
Ben Franklin had tried back in 1754 to get the Albany Plan of Union passed and it was NOT supported.
According to the website I used, http://www.ushistory.org/us/9.asp, “This plan, under the slogan ‘Join or Die’, would have brought the colonial rivals together to meet the common threat of the French and the Indians. Much to Franklin’s chagrin, this plan was soundly defeated”.
The colonists thought themselves very much “British Subjects” yet they came together to DECLARE themselves free and independent of The Man just a few years after they rejected Franklin’s Albany Plan.
So what led up to Britain losing to a “rag tag group of freedom fighters”?
Can you imagine the surprise on ole King George’s face when the ship bearing the news that the colonists were winning arrived?
I imagined that he must have declared, in the vernacular of the times, “are you guys sh**ing me?”
From my research, I understand that the push for independence came about from a string of steps that the British made. Some of these are called the Intolerable Acts:
1 Boston Port Act
2 Massachusetts Government Act
3 Administration of Justice Act
4 Quebec Act
The Colonists were further pushed over the proverbial edge with the Stamp Act. This said that all official documents had to bear certain stamps and the costs were extremely probative. People could not even issue birth certificates without these added expenses.
The masses were getting restless. Hey King…you’re in for a bit of a fight, buddy!
Further Independence was not won in ONE epic battle. Rather it was a series of smaller battles, each one giving the colonists more confidence. “How could the Americans ever hope to defeat the mighty British Empire in a military conflict? Americans faced seemingly impossible obstacles. When the guns fired at Lexington and Concord in 1775 there was not yet even a Continental Army.”
Some of the major battles of the American Revolution are:
April 1775 Lexington-Concord
June 1775 Bunker Hill
December 1775 Quebec
Oct 1776 White Plains
Sept 1777 Saratoga
Sept 1779 Siege of Savannah
Sept 1781 Siege of Yorktown
There are many more…
Why list any of the above?
This is, by way of telling you that Independence is a fight, that is worth it. Your personal independence is worth it. Your personal battles are worth fighting and you will gain confidence with each battle fought.
List your intolerable acts.
List your battles.
Begin to make your case.
Thomas Jefferson was a major writer of the Declaration of Independence, and he had assistance from John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R Livingston and Roger Sherman.
This amazing document has 4 parts
1. Preamble… Tells why the document is written, gives all the reasons why the people must support this.
2. Rights of all the people…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
3. List of Grievances…unfair actions of the King and Parliament and lists steps the colonists tried to take to settle these differences. This part ends with saying the King of England is “unfit to be the ruler of a free people”.
4. States that all the colonies are free and independent states.
So as I wish you a MOST HAPPY FOURTH… I invite you to declare your own Independence over your fears and the rules that are holding you back from living in true Freedom.
Here is a little formula to follow:
Write down some of the battles you have fought, give them some juicy names.
Write down some intolerable things that you have endured.
Get your peeps together, the ones who support you and begin the writing of your Freedom Document.
Write your declaration, change it as often as you wish, but keep working on it.
Send me your declarations and I will post some to my blog for the world to see.
Go forth and find your freedom wherever you may live.
Love and light from Indrani