The Declaration did not immediately dominate American public commemoration. Although in Georgia between 1776 and 1778, July 4th was observed annually, during the British occupation of Savannah between December 1778 and July 1782, no such celebration was possible. Beginning in 1783, a consistent pattern emerged in Savannah and Augusta: parades, formal dinners with exactly thirteen toasts honoring Washington, the state of Georgia, France, Spain, and the fallen, and evening illuminations, bonfires, and fireworks. The Declaration’s long afterlife was tested sharply during the Civil War, when Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens—a Georgian—stood in Savannah and declared that “all men are created equal” was a foundational error in the original compact. Through Reconstruction and into the twentieth century, African American leaders from Frederick Douglass to Martin Luther King Jr.—himself born in Georgia—consistently invoked the Declaration as a promissory note that the nation had yet to honor, locating its most radical possibilities in its long-deferred promise of equality.
Interviewees
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Stan Deaton
- Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian, Georgia Historical Society
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Christy Crisp
- Vice President of Education and Programs, Georgia Historical Society
