History of the 4th of July

Jeff, Luke and Jack talk about the traditions of the 4th of July holiday, how it started and how it is has evolved.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's she gonna do? Brother?When Jeff Townsend media runs wild on you?
America Stories. Alright, alright,alright, welcome to America Stories.

(00:29):
I'm Jeff Townsend joining me as professorLuke fod Bar. Is that what we
determined before? Yeah? Blue Moon, he's like his teacher's assistant. Also
something hot tub? Also yes,Yes, in our previous practice recording sessions
which you may or may not hearone day, you will get you experience.
Jack podcasting from a hot tub wouldbe a great no comment on that

(00:54):
check, It would be a greatlast last episode Jack from the hot tub.
Yeah. Five chat. Yeah,it sounds completely different tonight. So
this is exciting. We had apractice, we had to go through some
technical difficulties, but yeah, welcometo America Stories, where we teach you

(01:15):
some short historical America lessons and afun manner. We're gonna leave it to
Luke to make sure it's actually fun. I'm usually much for dark and tragic
and fun, but this is amuch lighter hearted topic though. Well,
that's good. So this is gonnabe the first episode release and it's going

(01:38):
to be fourth of July week,so you've matched up something to relate to
that. Yeah, well, we'regonna talk about the the origins of how
you know, it was a holiday, and then some of the story you
know, with how it first startedand well obviously you obviously know how first
it was the signing a declaration ofindependence, but then you know how has

(02:00):
um, you know, celebrating itoccurred over the years and stuff like that.
H So, you know, theone of the biggest things is,
h the whole day wasn't supposed tobe July fourth to start with the sighting
that really yeah, they well,so they voted on the independence on July

(02:23):
second, and John Adams said,this will be the day that people will
celebrate for hundreds of years. Therewill be bonfires across the nation on July
second every year, and people willbe celebrating the streets. He yeah,
he didn't think that they were goingto decide on July fourth, because that

(02:44):
was the day that a lot ofthem showed up to you know, sign
it. Uh, but that's whatthey do. Is it like the day
of the week that it happened tobe or something? I wonder what,
um, you know, I don'tknow the exact day of the week.
I'm sure Wait, Revere to deliverthe message, you know. But yeah,

(03:05):
beyond that, there was actually somedebate on how many of them actually
signed on July fourth, but theyjust thought it sounded like a good good
day because a lot of them didn'tsign until August second. So yeah,
like damn good day. Yeah.They were just like this is like the
selling point day, you know.And uh so yeah, the first July

(03:30):
fourth, you know, the bigfirst celebration, It shall be the July
fourth. Yeah. Uh. Inseventeen seventy six, they pretty much everyone
across the country celebrated by burning effigiesof the king. That was that was
their fireworks. Yeah, they hadwell they call them like mock uh yeah,

(03:52):
they had like mock funerals for KingGeorge and uh yeah they had like
no yea burning of effigies or uhlighting he really was anything that was like
with the British in the uh inthe king they would like burn his portraits
or or or the British flag anduh yeah, they celebrate it with like

(04:14):
picnics and uh speeches as the earlyfourth of July Independence Days celebrations. Yeah,
and then you know, from there, the very next year was the
first year to have fireworks in seventyseventy seven as part of the celebration,
and they decided they were going todo that from then on. Uh,

(04:39):
and then you know, the warprogressed. Uh, it went on for
eight years. People don't realize thatthat war didn't end in seventeen seventy six
or seventy seventy seven. It wasuntil eighty three. Could they even like
how long do you think he eventook them to find out like not to
fight? I mean, yeah,Like it was incredible because this is this

(05:00):
war is where they like it's thesame as civil but they walked everywhere.
I mean it's not like, yeah, you could call somebody and be like
the war is over right, Yeah, she just took a while to travel
across the whole content that when whenthey actually finally did you know, sign
the surrender, It probably took acouple of days for all the fighting to
stop and uh, and then youwould then like you know, some people

(05:25):
were probably you know, I'm notgonna stop fighting ever, but you know,
it did eventually end. Uh.And after the war, you got
progressively bigger, the celebrations did becausethere wasn't so much rationing there wasn't you
know, all this worry that we'regonna lose. So yeah, their celebrations
were considerably bigger. Uh. Itwasn't until the War of eighteen twelve though,

(05:51):
after that that it became like thishuge celebration for the country and that's
when people are taking days off workand stuff like that. But it wasn't
actually a federal holiday where people werepaid off I think until I would say

(06:15):
nineteen thirty two, like when federalworkers were allowed to be off. It
was nineteen thirty two nineteen thirty six, so one of those two days.
I get some of these dates mixedup, but yeah, it was,
interestingly enough, just kind of likea observed holiday until then. What do

(06:39):
you think those uh what do youthink those first fireworks were like? So
that's actually something they kind of describedthem as basically what they would use for
artillery, you know, like cannonsand rocket tree but without the full payload.
They were essentially just uh they wereessentially just bombs, but they didn't

(07:04):
they didn't kill. They were designedto just be like just it bam,
it's over. And then because thefireworks have been around at this point I
think since two hundred BC. Alot of selibratory fireworks were also kind of
just made with like gunpowder, youknow, like like he's like, like

(07:25):
Luke said, it was like cannonshot, but it was like just kind
of lit on fire and kind ofeither put in a tube in some some
places as well, would actually kindof like drill it out of out of
stone and put the gunpowder into thatand then like a trail fire up to
it, so it would kind oflike the shoot out like a burst of

(07:46):
flame almost and a loud sound.Yeah, those are a thing that it's
pretty big in the UK, uhback way back then, and it was
there called stone cannons, and yeah, they were just basically a primitive firework
and it was just drilled into therock like he was said. So,

(08:07):
you know, typically probably the fireworksthat would would have been used in the
US would have been probably a similaridea, but made with items we have
here. I don't know how manystone cannons were made in the US,
but they know the fireworks that theyuse were probably similar as far as just
like gunpowder packed into some kind oftube. Yeah. Actually, in seventeen

(08:31):
seventy seven they specifically mentioned that theylaunched fireworks out of thirteen cannons in the
harbor to symbolize the thirteen colonies.Really, other kind of interesting thing involves
that three different US presidents all passedaway on July fourth, and then they

(08:54):
were all months of funding family fathers, both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died
on the fiftieth anniversary of the ofthe Union, and on the same day,
same day, both on July fourth, the fiftieth July fourth. That
just natural causes, basically, yeah, the same day. Jomas Jefferson technically

(09:18):
died a few minutes before roughly youknow what they can gather h And at
the time John Addams obviously didn't knowthey were weren't exactly on the best of
terms. They had begun to menda relationship they had frayed during the elections,
and um, John Adams, ashe was about ready to die,

(09:43):
he knew he was dying. Hesaid, at least Thomas is alive,
And that was one of the lastthings he said. Wow, But he
wasn't. Yeah, he had hehad passed away. But a few years
later, five years later, onthe fifty fifth anniversary, James Monroe,
who was another founding father and oneof the presidents had passed away on Fort

(10:09):
July as well. Wow. Yeah, so this is a that's just crazy
odds out of all the days inthe year. Just think about that.
Yeah, I just had to lookat an immediate connection with that day and
then also passing away on a day. It's a really interesting thing. Uh.
And to survive as long as theydid back then, you know,
fifty years after they signed. Idon't know how old they were, but

(10:33):
they were had to be in there, you know, seven flea bites back
then. I mean, you getcold and during the early as far back
as the original Afford July, barbecueshave always been a part of the whole
uh celebration. That's what I wasgoing to say was that the uh,
you know, the modern day celebrationis still very similar to it was when

(11:00):
it was first celebrated, which Ithink is kind of interesting. Uh yeah,
like barbecue's, picnics and uh explosions, you know this guy and uh,
I think that that's uh yeah,it's interesting that you think about,
like like what we do every everyFourth July. Um, it's just probably
just been passed down from you know, from generation generation of what withy as

(11:24):
always uh, yeah, what wewhat we do with the modern day.
It's a little bit more extravagant withthe fireworks probably, but that we also
burned fewer pictures of King George.So there's there's some similarities with some differences.
Yeah, we've been through some crazyFourth of July is together and I'm
not gonna lie, I never oncethought of King George, but moving forward,

(11:46):
you know I might. I meanyeah, I just just yeah,
kind of tempted, right for antof a picture just in case who knows
where the knight and he was happyjust not to have to spend any more
money on the war and deal withus. That is actually a thing,
you know, once it was over, the British people, the normal British
people, they really care like itwas you know, like okay, one

(12:11):
fraction of our empires, no arepart of us or whatever. Yeah,
they still thought they were come backlater, which they yeah, they did
in eighteen twelve to try to takeus back over. But uh, you
know they still were kind of likethe rank and file British person was like,
well, at least we don't haveto pay for that country anymore.

(12:31):
Yeah, we were pretty costly betweenoverseas colonies. Can you imagine that?
Okay, so let me just cutyou off here. To come fight here,
you had to take a ship,which would take a monumental amount of
time, and so many people woulddie on the way here. Yeah.
Yeah, it's not exactly like thebest living conditions and disease spreads and oh

(12:54):
you see that clear through World WarOne especially, But anyways, the community
here is just so long and dreadful. I can't even imagine, let alone
the cost. This is actually kindof breaks up something you mentioned about,
you know, people dieing on theships and stuff during this time. This
is technically war revolutionary war tribute,but a large portion of people who died

(13:18):
in the war were just people whodied in being held in captivity on ships
prisoners of war. The vast supermajorityof soldiers that died died that way,
and it was from disease off thecoast, didn't they like in ships?
Yeah yeah, yeah, like likethey're holding uh this is the British,
right, We're holding Americans off theBoston Harbor whatever, New York. I

(13:43):
don't know, in these ships thatyou're talking about. Yeah, and they
just died from diseases in there.Uh, you know, and because like
you know, they would empty theirbed pans right off into the water,
right and they didn't really that stuffdidn't flow too well. And you would
get your drinking water by lowering bucketdown off the side of the ship and

(14:05):
bring it back up, and you'resupposed to boil it for a little bit,
but they wouldn't let you boil avery long, so a lot of
their waste would end up in theirdrinking water. And then they would also
cook in that water. And theywould usually give them a piece of pork
on a string and you're supposed tothrow it into the pot and boil it,
and they would tell you when topull it out, and it could

(14:28):
be well underdone, and you werebeing well underdone pork from water that was
had you know, waste in it. And that's just why they would die
off in there. So these barbecues, what were they barbecuing? Speaking of
disease? What kind of disease arethey brew it? After these barbecues.
Pork was always a major part ofSouthern barbecues, and specifically pulled pork,

(14:54):
and that was because most people didn'thave great teeth, and so they would
prefer a meal that was easy toeat, and a big to deal with
politicians at the time was they wouldthrow big pork barbecues. We have a
couple of whole hogs roasted and theywould use that to feed a large number

(15:18):
of constituents. And so early barbecueswere almost entirely pork based. Also,
cows were expensive, you know,they didn't have a ton of land in
original thirteen colonies to raise vast herds, so they were morally used for milk
and other work in the farm.Pigs were raised for slaughter back then,

(15:39):
mostly entirely. So that was likethe bulk chickens too, but people like
to keep their chickens around for theeggs. That was a big deal with
the food back then, as youhad the continual source of food. Yeah,
and the pigs would grow pretty quickly, so they were raised quickly.

(16:00):
And then have you had a largepig just to slaughter and have for like
a a large cookout or store yourmeat for you know, over the winter,
and all pretty much all early barbecuewas was developed and ran by these
large plantation slaveholders that they would theywould have their their slaves make most of

(16:26):
the food and so uh barbecue isis based entirely in that culture. It
is a very much a part oftheir way of life. They knew how
to prepare meats so that everyone couldeat it and that it would feed like
families and pomp families. And thatwas where a lot of you know,

(16:52):
slave families excelled was their ability tocook barbecue. And this it's quite an
interesting story in it of a self. It's learning the history. It's a
pass down knowledge of barbecue and howthat later and long translated to a lot
of these barbecue shops being opened inthe South by descendants of slaves. What

(17:19):
about a summer sausage. You thinkthere's any summer sausage you want to Well,
I couldn't. You didn't have torefrigerate it. I could definite for
some summer sauce. There was definitelya lot of stuff similar to that actually,
because they long hunters would go outand they would get meats that they

(17:41):
needed to cure, and summer sausageis kind of a bacteria cured sausage,
and so a lot of that wasactually done back then to preserve meats that
they would then serve. It's barbecuesas well. So so when they start
talking like fireworks and stuff like that. Was this like a big public event

(18:03):
or this is an event for theelite or was this actually something where they
let anybody come watch that This wasfor everyone. Yeah, everyone would come
to like the town squares and seethis happen, because this was, you
know, quite the thing to happen, you know, people declare an independence
from Britain. That was say,and so everyone was there to celebrate and

(18:25):
that was a big deal for likethe politicians at the time. They wanted
to make sure that you know,no one was being left out because this
was supposed to be everyone united againstthe British. So yeah, it was
definitely a for the people event.It was also it was this kind of
like a message that they wanted toget across was that everyone should start a

(18:48):
bonfire in their own backyards kind oflike signals some kind of solidarity with this
declaration of independence that it's so it'slike how like individual household bonfire possibly like
a fireworks, having your own picnickind of like celebration was like the way

(19:10):
of saying we support this and wewant to you know, commit to this,
uh, you know movement. Whatwould John Brown be thinking man,
I don't know, well he woulduh probably be like, well, we
need to kill these guys some more. I don't know. It was crazy,
Yeah, you would want to killthese British bad It's like a bad

(19:33):
insight joke from our first recording whenwe talked about Crazy John John Brown episode
Crazy. I mean one of thesedays John Brown absent. So there was
a note that Thomas Jefferson wrote afew days before he died. Uh,
he didn't know, well, heknew he was you know, he was
older, and but he knew thathe was, you know, probably gonna

(19:55):
pass. So he wrote a letterto be read in DC at the fiftieth
anniversary. The letter is actually kindof interesting. I do have it and
I would like to want to readit off here. He says, May
it be to the world what Ibelieve it will be, the signal of
arousing men to burst the chains andto assume the blessings and security of self

(20:18):
government. That which we have substitutedrestores the free right to the unbounded exercise
of reason and freedom of opinion.All eyes are opened or opening to the
rights of man for ourselves. Letthe annual return of this day forever refresh

(20:38):
our, recollection, recollections of thoserights and undiminished devotation to them. He
definitely understood the importance this holiday hadto keep the union together, that it
was something that had to be celebratedin order to keep everyone one united.

(21:02):
Yeah, And I would also saythat the celebration of Independence Day every year
is also like a reminder, right, like we we know that we this
is important that the nation that wehave this kind of like well, what
was Lincoln called it a great experiment, right, the American country was a

(21:25):
great experiment of talking about like freedom. But we know that, I think
because every year we remind ourselves andwe have this holiday that this is like,
hey, we all have to kindof remind. Even if you don't
continually remind yourself of that, um, you're going to forget it. And
so that's why I think it's it'salways important to you know, celebrate on

(21:45):
on the fourth. Even if youdon't blow something up, you can at
least you know, have have acook out and and just kind of like
take a step back and realize howbig this day is. How do we
like, I feel like the furtherwe go on from it here, how
do we like keep that alive there, like through our children, the next

(22:07):
generation. Like that it's not justa day of fireworks, blow and shut
up, right. I think thatit's important to remember that there needs to
be some amount of solemnity and respectgiven to it. Like it's it's a
variety of things, right. Theholiday means a lot of stuff. It
means this was the day that agroup of people decided to premit high treason

(22:34):
and sign you know, documentation sayingwe are going to give up everything we
have in order to preserve the rightsof man. And a lot of them
didn't want to sign it. Imean they did not because what you just
said, these were rich people.These were people who had everything to lose.
They were not like your blue collarworkers. These were people who had

(22:57):
holdings that rivaled you know, manyrich bell princes. These were people who
had everything to lose, very littleto gang. They decided we will risk
at all. I think people needto remember that, they remember that people
were willing to die and lose everythingto bring freedom. I also think that

(23:22):
you know, to continue that isto you know, I have to like
you know, pass it on tothe next generations to kind of also think
about that you know, traditions cankind of include the new uh new activities.
I guess you could say, becauseyou know, not everyone is going

(23:44):
to or you know, light offfireworks, but it also wasn't the main
activity from to begin with. Itwas actually originally just kind of like bonfires.
So you know, I think everyone'spretty much comfortable to have a little
bonfire and sitting down talking. Soyou know, even if not everyone lights
off, I love lighting on fireworkswithout everyone does, so having you know,

(24:08):
just simple traditions of of you justa picnic or a barbecue or a
meal feast even uh, and bonfireis equally symbolic. So there's there's there's
plenty different ways to celebrate before July, so that would be definitely one of

(24:29):
ways you can continue the tradition evenwith people who maybe don't do the exact
same thing. Uh, it's stillstill continuing the holiday. Now. I
do agree with you. I thinkthat there's opportunities and people just need to
be creative and you, yeah,I think it's it's just like Christmas,
right, I don't lose the sideof what's really important with it. This
was a really cool little lesson here. Do you have anything else to add

(24:53):
to it or no, just tobe you know, if you are so
brighton the holiday, be safe,have fun with your family and you know,
just have fun. Oh and maybemaybe burn a picture of King George.
I don't know, I think.Oh, but we'll say one thing.

(25:15):
The way you guys celebrate it isvery John Brown, like, can't
I've been there. They're in thisevent and it can be very extravagant.
I would say it's probably your guysor used to be your guys favorite holiday.
Yeah, it's one of the topthree for us. Um, Christmas
is really big Christmas. Yeah,it's close, but used to be a

(25:37):
huge thing. Yeah, it wasdefinitely. Uh we've met a little bit
in our old age, but wealso had it. We had another one
at my house and we'd be lightenedoff in the middle of town and everybody's
kidding. Yeah, yeah there,And I will say time to getting all
the dogs. A lot of theneighbor kids. I carrying on that tradition
for sure. We'll ask you somepacking firecrackers. My heart just fills with

(26:03):
joy. Yeah yeah, let alonebottle rockets. Man, those things would
really fly. You know what themost dangerous part or some of the mortars
and stuff. Some of the thingsthat come off of the fireworks, those
could just be oh yeah, gettingnailed in the head, but a piece
of wood or something. You haveseen that as well, yea, yea
yeah. So yeah, these theseare two guys that really do like this
holiday. So wouldn't we want towin? Luke's telling you this story.

(26:26):
He uh, he's passionate about it. I'll vouch for that. Yeah,
I mean, I yeah, it'sa very interesting story and there's a lot
of interesting you know, facts aboutand uh. I enjoyed talking about him.
If you're listening, you know,let us know what you think.

(26:47):
If you're going to participate in anyexplosions of any King George memorabilia, Um,
yeah, I don't encourage anything else, maybe more specific, because that
could be very hateful. It's justdays. I guess we should be specifical
about gets King George that right secondsecond, got Jack said, all,

(27:19):
well, guys, man, thanksfor sharing this amazing an America story with
us. I feel more American,I said the A and I just left
it out. There's no read.You can make it faster word, make
it faster words American. It's theplenty more stories to talk about too.
It's the various wars, but there'salso things such as the you know,

(27:41):
the trans Continental Railroad that was builtand now there's a lot of different stories
that are really interesting about America.Yep. And once again Jack looks like
Ulysses Gray. Yeah, yeah,he does. We'll get to that one
day. And we're having the showNotes had of reach out to us.
We're still putting this all together.We do want to put episodes out.

(28:03):
We decided on white every two weeks. Yeah, so that's what we'll work
on. This will be episode numberone, fourth of July. Let us
know what you think. I'm asocial media podcast father on everything. These
two guys really aren't. Yeah,I may hand them the keys to the
America Stories Twitter account rebranded from IndianaStories, So yeah, you guys could

(28:25):
be deadly. Get your John brownon on that note, we will get
our John Browns on and get thehell out of it. Well he actually
never get the hell out of here, he just gets but he did.
I'm going to do the exact oppositeof that. I'm gonna lead us out
of here. Guys. What doyou say? Sounds good? So everybody
listening until next time, keep beingyou and keep being great. Everybody like

(29:00):
you road did you do? It'swrong. People got to think for the
dangerous that it inside best to ustake it what they wrong. Like I
said to someone must do the bestweekend. Someone must do the best weekend.

(29:48):
Jeff Townsend, Media sees you goodnight. And the question is do
I stay here? Will you beback? Are you gonna come back?
Will you be back? Are youcoming back?