Ah, yes, the presence of the past.

A big topic, actually.

Take July 4, 1776.

And with that heavy duty date, take this:

Q: How many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were born in the United States?

(waaait for it…)

A: None!

The United States didn’t exist yet, silly!

That dorky trick question nails what happened that day 246 years ago and why it’s still worth celebrating.

The room you see pictured above in the Old State House in Philadelphia is the exact place where the deed went down: it’s the delivery room, the literal birthplace of the United States of America.

Where elected representatives from the 13 colonies* agreed to declare themselves independent from Great Britain. These days that room holds stand-in furniture selected to look like what was there in the 1770s. That portion of the room is then separated by a low, wooden wall from an area in the back from which 5 million tourists pay their respects in person every year, dutifully snapping pix.

These days….

We the living, breathing people of the United States of America are all the immediately compelling, real, hard and fast evidence of what went down in that room 246 years ago:

People who had been selected by the people they lived with in each of 13 different colonies to represent them in a collective and collectively minded ruling committee unanimously agreed to and did declare that together as a unit the 13 colonies they represented were as of then to be independent of the authority of England (aka Great Britain).

And with the declaration of independence, made on July 4th, two days after they voted to separate and become the United States of America, we are all here now as a result.

Why July 4th?

As the history geeks out there already know, August 2 is arguably our nation’s BDay…as is July 2 and maybe, probably July 4th too. Cuz different aspects of the things that were required to make this a legally binding act all happened on those various days in the summer of 1776.

July 1776: the USA’s Birthday Month

July 2, 1776 — in Philadelphia, the 2nd Continental Congress approved a motion from Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee that thereby, forthwith, and evermore a certain 13 British colonies on the mainland of America would be no longer part of Britain, but their own, independent and united states, such as they were. A nation of their own. This, a Tuesday, was the day the USA was born. (Massachusetts delegate John Adams was certain for a time that July 2nd would henceforth be the massively revered and celebrated holiday for generations to come.)

July 4, 1776 — Congress voted on and approved the document announcing this new independence and the reasons for it, that had been drafted by its committee created to draft such a document. That document was, of course, famously drafted by Thomas Jefferson with critical input from Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. It was signed and endorsed by only the President of Congress, John Hancock of the Massachusetts delegation, and the secretary, Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia.

July 8, 1776 — in Philadelphia, the Declaration of Independence is officially read aloud publicly for the first time in the town square in front of the State House where Congress met.

July 9, 1776 — General George Washington has the Declaration read to his troops in New York City. A German translation is published in Philadelphia (analogous to a Spanish or Chinese translation being published if it were happening in California, today).

July 20-August 1, 1776 — a fancy-schmancy permanent version of the Declaration isprinted again on parchment

August 2, 1776 — the document is formally endorsed by the 2nd Continental Congress with each delegate signing his name to it (a few adding their signatures later.)

Part II

So since obviously none of the Signers were born in the United States since it didn’t exist, the valid question is how many of the 56 men who signed the Declaration were not born in America? And it turns out the number is eight, or 14.3% of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were not born in America.

26 of my kids’ 142 ancestors in America in 1776 were Fresh-off-the-Boat immigrants, or 18.3%, which happens to be statistically exceedingly close to the proportion of the Signers (8/56) …which also happens to be close to the proportion of the whole population of this place that’s born elsewhere since 1675 (clearly not including 100% since the arrival of Europeans to begin with! :-o)

That’s kind of amazing.

Of the 142 of my kids’ ancestors present in the colonies in July of 1776, one was a quarter Native American. She was a 68-year-old widow, and with her son and his 13-year old boy represent the line that’s been in America the longest: the widow’s grandmother was of the Lenni Lanape people.

Here’s the interesting breakdown on those 142 ancestors, comparing them to the signers of the Declaration: