“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” – Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852
Editor’s Note: Black Americans did not celebrate the 4th of July until the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. In this no-holds-barred essay, Frederick Douglass, who became one of our great intellectuals, social reformers, and abolitionist leaders after escaping slavery, spells out why Independence Day was a mockery to […]
Constitution of the United States of the World (includes a series of declarations), 1870
Editor’s Note: Though unsung today, Victoria Woodhull (1838 – 1937) was at the vanguard of the women’s rights movement, which she connected with the labor rights movement. Not only that, she was the first-ever woman to be nominated by her party — the Equal Rights Party — to be its candidate for President of the United States. […]
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace (1996)
Editor’s Note: This declaration was crafted by John Perry Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international nonprofit that focuses on fair use of digital rights. It was issued as a paper, and was widely released online on February 8, 1996. In many respects the declaration is a response to (and against) the U.S. Telecommunications […]
Declaration of American Energy Independence (2011)
Editor’s Note: According to this site, this declaration, which in structure and rhetoric at least in part was inspired by our July 4, 1776 document, was signed in August 2011 “during several Energy Patriots events held in Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD; York, PA; and Philadelphia, PA. The event was sponsored by AmeriGeen, a Manheim-based biofuel […]
Haitian Declaration of Independence (1804)
Editor’s Note: On January 1, 1804, after a protracted war with forces sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to quell its uprising, Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue) declared its independence from France. It became the second colony in the Americas, following the United States, to make a formal break with its ruling country. Penned by Boisrond-Tonnerre — who composed it […]
The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions — 1848, Seneca Falls Conference, Women’s Rights
Editor’s Note: With the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 as its model, the driving forces behind this declaration – which demands the recognition of women as rights-bearing citizens — was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, anti-slavery and women’s rights activists. The declaration was issued at a convention for women’s rights held in Seneca Falls, […]
The Black Declaration of Independence (1970)
Editor’s Note: Though in some respects an adaptation of our July 4, 1776 Declaration, this time the tyrant is not King George but the endemic system of oppression and segregation that prevented Black Americans from being part of “all men are created equal.” The public proclamation issued by the National Committee of Black Churchmen on […]
Tea Party Nation Declaration of Independence (2010)
Editor’s Note: In February 2010, about a year after enter the political scene in a big way, Tea Party activists began disseminating a ‘Declaration of Independence.’ Evocative at last in some respects of our July 4, 1776 document, the declaration aims to be a means for clarifying their principles and purpose, for establishing their independence from the […]
Virginia Declaration of Rights (June 12, 1776)
Editor’s Note: Take a careful gander at the Virginia Declaration of Rights, crafted by American patriot George Mason and adapted by the Virginia Constitutional Convention on June 12, 1776, and you’ll see readily how deeply it influenced Jefferson’s opening paragraphs in his draft of the Declaration of Independence, not to mention our Constitution’s Bill of […]
English Bill of Rights of 1689
Editor’s Note: From grievances such ‘taxation without representation,’ having a standing army in a time of peace, and other usurpations of power by king and parliament, to enumerated rights like freedom of speech and the right to be governed only with the people’s consent, Our Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 was clearly influenced by the English Bill of […]
