Reading the Declaration of Independence in a Time of Protest & Pandemic
Created July 28th, 2020 by Angela Dillard
Framing Statement:
It took 1,337 words to declare a revolution, and the Declaration of Independence has been at the center of debates about rebellion, freedom, and equality ever since. This Democracy Cafe is an invitation to community discussion of this audacious and challenging document as we continue to live in the midst of both a global pandemic and ongoing protests against police brutality and systemic racism.
Some have read the document as a justification for settler colonialism and the violent oppression of indigenous peoples. Others have read it has the foundational text for the American experiment with democracy. Some have read it as a document sorely at odds with the realities of life in the American colonies and the early Republic, especially given the absence (in the final version) of direct references to the enslavement of peoples of African descent. While others, including the descendants of slaves have used it, decades and even centuries later, to press for their own claims for citizenship, inclusion, and freedom.
It is at once glorious, prophetic, duplicitous, radical and complex.
While the Declaration holds certain truths to be self-evident -- that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights -- it is simultaneously marked by exclusions based on gender, race and status. How should we read the Declaration as an artifact of its own times? How should we read the Declaration today, as our society struggles with the dual challenges of racism and the pandemic?
Multimedia:
We Hold These Truths: Living Up to Our Declaration, A Conversation with Danielle Allen
Filmed on July 3, 2020 as a component of the Democracy & Debate Theme Semester launch, and as the inaugural event for the Democracy Cafe series. During the event, Lynette Clemetson, the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House, and Danielle Allen, a renowned political theorist, Harvard professor, winner of the John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity, and author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, closely analyzed the Declaration of Independence. Watch the full discussion here.
“Declaration” is an “erasure poem” literally built from portions of the Declaration of Independence. You can view, read, and listen to the poem on the website of the Poetry Foundation.
“This is America” a music video by Childish Gambino
Created by actor Donald Glover using his Childish Gambino persona, this is a challenging work and may not be suitable for young children or those disturbed by violent images. Use this resource with caution and as a contemporary text problematizes notions of American freedom and the American Dream, especially for the nation’s Black population.
This video returns to the 27th grievance and the invocation of Native Americans in the Declaration through an exploration of archival materials in the Clements Library on the campus of the University of Michigan. Produced as part of the Michigan Minds series, Greg Dowd, Interim Chair of American Culture and Helen Hornbeck Tanner Collegiate Professor in the College of LSA, dives into the Declaration to examine its development, intent, and legacy.
What to a Slave Is the Fourth of July?
As the U.S. celebrated Independence Day 2020 amid nationwide protests and calls for systemic reforms, National Public Radio produced this short film with five young descendants of Frederick Douglass reading and responding to excerpts of his famous speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" which asks all of us to consider America's long history of denying equal rights to Black Americans. You can find the full text of Douglass' 1857 speech here. Links to an external site.
Text:
Declaration of Independence Links to an external site.
It is helpful to provide Cafe participants with the same text of the Declaration of Independence. This version, from the National Archives, also has resources on the making and meaning of the document.
Editing the Declaration Links to an external site.
This version, from the UsHistory.org site, provides the "Rough Draft" text of the Declaration as Jefferson probably presented it to Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, for correction, and allows you to review the subsequent drafts.
This article argues that the American revolution, declared by the Declaration, was not only an effort to establish independence from the British Empire, but also a push to preserve slavery and to suppress Native American insurrection.
Remember The Ladies Links to an external site.
Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams admonished her husband to “Remember the Ladies,” in the struggle for independence from the British crown. This resource includes the original text of her now famous letter and links it to the subsequent movement for women’s suffrage. The University of Michigan sought to use the 2020 calendar year to mark the history of the Suffrage Movement. See the UMSuffrage2020 website Links to an external site..
President Donald Trump’s message to the nation, July 4, 2020.
Give Us Liberty, or Give Us COVID-19? Links to an external site.
This article from Psychology Today discusses the tensions between personal liberty and public safety that has emerged in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and cautions against being too dismissive of the anti-shut down protests. Rather the author invites us to understand these protests in the context of American ideas of freedom and liberty and from the perspective of Moral Foundations Theory. This would make for a challenging but informative addition to your Cafe conversation.
Questions & Prompts:
Consider a question on the different versions of the text, including what was edited out and what was written in.
Consider, too, a prompt on slavery and freedom. Is slavery a fatal flaw in the document and hence the nation? Slavery is often called the nation’s “original sin.” What does it mean that so many of the men who signed the declaration were themselves owners of slaves? Could it be that they understood the value of freedom precisely because they were living in a slaveholding region?
Many people grapple with the Declarations multiple exclusions -- of women and Native Americans, especially -- and you should not shy away from this in your Cafe. Abigail Adams and the short video by Gregory Dowd provide useful starting points, as does the wonderful conversation between Danielle Allen and Lynnette Clemetson.
Consider, as well as, a prompt on Tracy K. Smith’s poetic commentary on/ reinterpretation of the Declaration. Discuss her choices.
Finally, the address from President Trump, the Psychology Today article and the Childish Gambino video all offer rich perspectives on contemporary American society as we continue to struggle with a growing partisan divide, tensions between individual liberty and public safety in the context of the pandemic, as well as debates over systemic racism.
Notes on How to Have an Inclusive Conversation
Please use caution with these materials. Practice active listening. Try not to assume bad motives and welcome all perspectives into the conversation. You might want to establish ground rules or guidelines for navigating discussions, especially around difficult topics. Here are some common ways to approach this task. Take a few minutes to discuss these with all of the members of your group. Make changes as needed.
- Listen respectfully, without interrupting.
- Listen actively and with an ear to understanding others' views. (Don’t just think about what you are going to say while someone else is talking.)
- Criticize ideas, not individuals.
- Commit to learning, not debating. Comment in order to share information, not to persuade.
- Avoid blame, speculation, and inflammatory language.
- Allow everyone the chance to speak. "Monitor your airtime" and remember that including everyone is a shared responsibility that involves us all
- Avoid assumptions about any member of the class or generalizations about social groups. Do not ask individuals to speak for their (perceived) social group.
- Remember that online communication can be even more challenging. If you need to step away use the "chat" function to let the group know, and return as soon as possible. Let people know what's going on to avoid misunderstandings.
Before group conversations take a moment and review the ground rules, and make sure that everyone has agreed to abide by them.