Simon Schama: The founding fathers and the battle for America’s future

1. 1. Thomas Jefferson chose July 4 for official celebrations, not July 2 when independence was actually voted, likely because he authored the Declaration.
2. 2. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration, with Adams's last words reportedly being 'Jefferson survives.'
3. 3. Jefferson's final letter expressed hope that the American Revolution would inspire the world to burst the chains of 'monkish ignorance and superstition' and embrace self-government.
4. 4. The Founding Fathers were a 'book-drunk' intellectual elite who drew heavily on Locke, Montesquieu, and Vattel, forming 'the most consequential book club there has ever been.'
5. 5. The Declaration's indictment of George III for the slave trade was 'hyperbolic to the point of caricature,' as the king was not solely responsible.
6. 6. Lord Dunmore's 1775 proclamation offering freedom to enslaved men who fought for the Crown turned the Revolution into a civil war, with thousands rallying to the British side.
7. 7. The Corsican Republic of 1755, with its constitution guaranteeing universal male suffrage and women's voting rights, served as a model for the Declaration's pursuit of happiness.
8. 8. Congress removed Jefferson's entire paragraph condemning the slave trade from the final Declaration, along with a romantic passage likening the colonies to a disrespected lover.
9. 9. The Declaration's promise of equality remained unfulfilled for slaves, leading Frederick Douglass to ask in 1852, 'What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?'
10. 10. Simon Schama criticizes President Trump for reducing American history to 'a puerile exercise in national self-flattery,' purged of conflict, tragedy, and injustice.