"Its soul, its climate, its equality, liberty, laws, people, and manners.
My God! how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!"  Thomas Jefferson

"...do you know that even farmers fired on our soldiers?"  the Duke of Gloucester

If you pick up an ear of corn on the 4th of July, you are celebrating all the Americas for long before we had a 4th of July, an Independence Day to celebrate, corn was here - a gift from the New World to the Old World.  If your preference on July 4th is to head to the back yard to grill a steak or a hamburger, you are eating the quintessential American food, though in the early days of the country bison roamed the west.  Cattle ranches did not exist, in fact, the west, as we know it today did not exist as part of an Independence Day.

Should you indulge in lobster as a special treat, think back to 1622, long before the 4th of July was a national celebration. Lobster was abundant, so cheap it was the poor man's food.   In that year a group of new colonists arrived at Plymouth Rock.  The distressed governor, William Bradford, had little to offer the new arrivals as the colony was short of food.  The only "dish they could presente [sic] their friends with was a lobster...without bread or anything els but a cupp of fair water." 

On the 4th of July we celebrate America as a land of plenty, a land of freedom, a land independent of its ties to the countries from which the population of the new land developed.  Long before there were Independence Day celebrations, the first colonists found the waters teeming with fish, the forests filled with game.  The first Americans, the Native Americans, taught the colonists to grow native crops - corn, beans, pumpkins, squash. 

Before the 4th of July was designated as a federal holiday, before we had an official Independence Day, the early colonists expressed their desire for freedom by naming dishes with patriotic titles.  There was Independence Cake, Federal Cake, Election Cake, Ratification Cake and Congressional Bean Soup.  Today we are more inclined to be making our favorite salsa on the 4th, reflecting the growth and spread of the country beyond the early thirteen colonies.

4th of July Picnics and Barbecues

There were no back yard celebrations for an early fourth.  Were there "back yards" or deep dark woods in those days?  But we humans like to celebrate, and there were large gatherings, on common grounds of towns and cities, in public houses, school houses.  Then, as now lemonade and ice cream would have been popular, though we have moved away from the turtle soup that may have graced a few tables. Picnics and barbecues were in vogue just as they are today on the 4th of July.

When we head to the grill to cook some barbecued ribs, we are continuing a long tradition of cooking pork with some domestic alteration.  Sixty years after the signing was completed, one visitor to America, a Captain Frederick Marryat, wrote of a New York City 4th of July celebration.   Marryat reported seeing quantities of food in stands along Broadway in which were oysters and clams, boiled hams, pies and puddings and candy.   "Broadway being three miles long, and the booths lining each side of it, in every booth there was a roast pig, large or small as the center attraction.  Six miles of roast pig! and that in New York city alone; and roast pig in every other city, town, hamlet, and village in the Union."

Have a picnic, head to the back yard and get grilling - lots of recipes on these pages:

sandwich recipes       salad and dressing recipes       grilling and barbecue recipes       

our national obsession - the hot dog       a dish of luscious ice cream    the delights of lobster

 

Early 4th of July Celebrations

How and when did this national celebration begin?  Listen to the words of John Adams, written the day after the Congressional Congress passed the resolution establishing American independence:

"...I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations...with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other..." ( full text below)

Adams' words accurately foresaw Independence Day celebrations, as we celebrate the 4th with noisy fireworks, with parades and, of course, with food.  The only trouble is that Adams wrote this on July 3rd as the resolution was passed on July 2nd, not on July 4th.  Once the resolution was passed, the eager congress quickly approved a document that had already been prepared. 

This was, of course, the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, not yet President of the United Sates. Though the document was not yet fully signed, July 4th was the date on which we would forever celebrate our Independence Day, the severing of foreign rule.

In the early days the 4th was not a federal holiday.  In fact, no federal holidays even existed.  The early celebrations, scattered throughout the colonies in a rag-tag fashion, nonetheless, possessed all the same qualities as today's celebrations of Independence Day.   We equate the 4th of July with explosions and the early ones were made by canons - less graceful than the explosion of graceful fireworks that we see today.

The flag that unfurled was not the red, white, and blue of our celebrations today, but the one raised by George Washington, called the "Grand Union" flag.  It bore the British (! !) cross of St. George and St. Andrew on a blue field with thirteen red and white stripes.

Then as now, however, there has always been the biggest explosion of all - political rhetoric and oratory, otherwise known as hot air.  The political football called the 4th of July was always tangled in politics.  Celebrate Independence Day?  Any politician would want to lay claim to that.  The fervor to claim responsibility was so intense that until Jefferson was elected president, the Federalists denied that he had written the Declaration of Independence.  Then, as now.  Some things never change.

Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence.

A Renaissance man, whose equal the United States has yet to produce, he was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase, acquiring those lands where what is arguable America's greatest contribution to the culinary world developed - Cajun and Creole cooking.   Jefferson wanted to be remembered for the Declaration of Independence and for establishing the University of Virginia.  Though Jefferson's taste in food ran to the French, when you barbecue that all-American burger on the Fourth of July, a nod of the head Thomas Jefferson's Recipe for Ice Cream.

In an oddly noted coincidence, Thomas Jefferson died at his home in Monticello on July 4th, 1826.   On that same day, up in Quincy, Massachusetts,  John Adams also died.

Shortly before his death Jefferson wrote:  "...for ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."

John Adams on Independence

In a letter to his wife, Abigail, John Adams, one of the founders and the second President of America writes:

"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.-I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary  Festival.  It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.  It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not.  I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. =- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory.  I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means.  And that Posterity will tryumph [sic] in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."

Happy 4th of July. 

Happy Independence Day.

 

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