The Declaration's legacy in Massachusetts has been one of constant reinterpretation and expansion. The Sheffield Resolves of 1773, proclaiming that mankind in a state of nature is equal, free, and independent, anticipated its language. An enslaved woman named Mumbet, who overheard those resolves and later heard the Declaration read aloud, worked with attorney Theodore Sedgwick in the early 1780s to sue for her freedom—an early precedent that helped end slavery in Massachusetts. John Adams famously predicted independence would be celebrated with pomp and parade, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other. On the fiftieth anniversary in 1826, Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, electrifying the nation. At the Framingham Grove rally on July 4, 1854, abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips invoked the Declaration to condemn slavery—with Garrison burning the Constitution before a roaring crowd and Phillips insisting that the founders' unfinished task was to add liberty to independence.
Interviewees
-
Sara Martin
- Editor in Chief, The Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society
-
Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai
- Peter Drummey Chief Historian, Massachusetts Historical Society
