Independence: Declared yet undefined

As we stood outside Philadelphias red-brick Independence Hall a mere stones throw from the room where it happened Bruce Carroll looked at me intently.

Independence, to me, is the great freedoms we have in the United States, Carroll said.

Carroll, a six-year U.S. Army veteran, is one of the people whom I can thank for the fact that I live in an independent country.

To him, the definition of independence came easily. He spoke with clarity, pride and the certainty of someone who decided long ago what that word meant to him. Theres no doubt he knows what hes celebrating this year during the 250th anniversary of American independence, the date of adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

But me? Im not as sure.

Somewhere between the founding of the republic and modern American life, independence seems to have shifted. What once was a collective struggle to build a nation has turned into a deeply personal idea about selfhood, autonomy and individual freedom.

In that moment, standing outside Independence Hall, looking up at the eight-foot statue of George Washington, I couldnt help but wonder: What did the idea of independence mean to him? Or the 56 men who signed the declaration to declare it? And is America still an independent nation, or a nation of independents?

Today, independence is often associated with another charged term: individualism. But the colonists gathered in Philadelphia in 1776 would not have viewed the two as synonymous. In fact, the word individualism did not even exist in their vocabulary. (Dont believe me? Flip through Samuel Johnsons 1775 dictionary. You wont find the word individualism in there.)

David Gary, associate director of collections at the American Philosophical Society Library Museum, said, If were talking about the founders and the people here in Philadelphia working on the Declaration of Independence, this was not an individualistic independence; this would have been independence to create a people or a nation.

For those 18th-century innovators, independence wasnt about protecting personal rights; it was about creating a republic. They sought to establish a people joined together by the bonds of democracy and a shared social contract.

The idea of independence, in the sense of standing alone that we often associate it with today, would have been viewed by the colonists as a quick path to defeat by the British Empire.

They dont want to be independent they want to be confederated. They want to be linked together because they know that they are weak otherwise, Jessica Choppin Roney, associate professor of history at Temple University and director of the Program in Early American Economy and Society at the Library Company of Philadelphia, said.

They were thinking much more about collective rights to self-determination and to a collective kind of freedom of speech, not necessarily down to the level of individual that we think about it today.

In 1776, independence was a political term used to create a community. Today, our understanding of what independence is has changed. And with it, the idea of what it means to be a nation.

Gautham Rao, associate professor of history at American University, defines independence as the combination of two competing freedoms: freedom

something (such as harm, oppression or tyranny) and freedom

something (the sovereignty of choice).

Putting those two together, he said, is almost like alchemy. The coexistence of these ideas is one of the countrys oldest contradictions, and finding a balance between them is one of its defining challenges.

As these perspectives have competed over time, Rao said, the American people have gravitated towards freedom to. When exactly that occurred, however, remains a topic of debate.

Some historians trace the shift to the Bill of Rights. The main body of the Constitution focused on We the People, but the Bill of Rights more explicitly protected individual liberties.

Others point to the War of 1812 (sometimes known as the second war of independence) and the market revolution that followed, which intensified disputes over social inequality and opportunity.

Pinpointing a moment in history when this definition changed is complicated. Then again, maybe complexity here is fitting, because the American Revolution and the war for independence itself were nothing if not complex.

As I talked to scholars and experts from all over the country, they all threw out the same word to describe Revolutionary America: messy.

The reality is, these were complicated people in a complicated time who had to make some really tough choices. Sometimes they got it right. A lot of the time, they got it wrong, Rao said. For me, I think the messiness of the American experiment is actually the beauty of it.

That messiness may be one of the most important parts of the American story to preserve.

Appreciating how hard it was for them and that they did this anyway, and that it was messy and imperfect, I think gives us some peace to think about how we are messy and imperfect, Roney said.

Recognition, Roney continued, provides an opportunity for humility in approaching political problems today.

We need to embrace our interdependence and the things that we share, she said. And we share a great deal.

Independence is a right, but rights come with the responsibility to recognize that being an

nation requires us to be an

community.

Denver Brunsman, associate professor and chair of the History Department at George Washington University, said the Revolutionary War only

to define what it means to be American, and were still working on that definition today.

Creating a people, Brunsman said, was a work in progress, and it still is, in terms of the country working together as a whole.

Its possible the Declaration of Independence was never meant to remain frozen in time. And just like the definition of independence is changing, so is the definition of American.

I dont think of the declaration as an event of July 4, 1776, Gary said. I think of it as a process over centuries that will constantly be going.

As Carroll and I stood in the shadow of Independence Hall two imperfect Americans, admiring the beauty of an imperfect moment in American history we realized we were each part of this process, 250 years in the making, with more to come.

I think its great to be an American, Carroll said to me.

He then smiled, put on his sunglasses and grabbed his wifes hand to continue their walk down the red-brick streets of downtown Philadelphia.

Despite all the messiness of Americas past and the uncertainty of its future, I couldnt help but smile in agreement with my new friend.

I took one last look at the Independence Hall and continued on my way too, leaving the landmark behind in the warm summer air, but taking with me a better understanding of everything it represents.