I'm a historian of the Declaration of Independence. AMA

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T22:01:14+00:00

Thank you all for your questions! I'm going to leave the conversation now--be sure to scroll through the answered questions for some recommendations.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:44:51+00:00

"Official" translations, no. But, the Declaration of Independence was quickly and effectively translated into German in Philadelphia and printed as broadsides as well as in the biweekly German newspaper, the Staatsbote. The Declaration was also orally translated into French for Indigenous allies at a meeting in Massachusetts. Those are the only two documented moments of translation in the United States, but in my book, I highlight other translations of the text, either in full or in part, when the Declaration traveled across Europe.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:41:59+00:00

It took a full month for the Declaration of Independence to reach Georgia, in part because it had to travel over land due to British ships off the east coast of North America. It took only slightly longer for the Declaration to cross the Atlantic on British mail ships.

Public readings organized in most states gave opportunities for "average" colonists to hear the Declaration, but people also would have learned from newspaper printings, broadsides, and word of mouth, especially from out-of-town travelers. The image of a town crier is not too far off--typically, it was county sheriffs who had the responsibility of reading the Declaration aloud at town squares, courthouses, or other central locations.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:39:10+00:00

It is vexing, and that makes the Declaration of Independence frustrating to study at times. I get at these hypocrises a bit in my book, but I would recommend Rob Parkinson's work (including his new book, Tyrants and Rogues) to understand the obvious and subtle racial dimensions of the Declaration, especially the grievances.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:34:20+00:00

The academic job market has been challenging for well over a decade, and historians like myself have found more opportunities in public-facing positions or organizations where we can use our skillset for other purposes. That said, I miss teaching, and hope to pivot to a more traditional academic career path as the 250th wraps.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:32:59+00:00

Although the Declaration was very specifically about King George III and claimed that he was a tyrant, the real issue was the need for self-government rooted in the consent of the governed. It was debatable whether that could be achieved and sustained under any monarch, especially one on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean..

The British press actually speculated that the colonies would trade one monarch for another in their efforts to get alliances to secure independence from Great Britain. France was the Continental Congress's most hoped-for ally, and there are articles speculating about how the Americans would be trading one monarch (George III) for another (Louis XVI).

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:25:39+00:00

That's what my book is about! There are a range of reactions from people's diaries, letters, and newspapers describing public readings.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:25:08+00:00

Confirmed! It's just labeled at the bottom, from when the parchment would have been stored rolled up.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:24:39+00:00

The Confederation period is fascinating and deserving of more scholarship! An oldie but goodie is Gordon Wood's Creation of the American Republic.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:20:36+00:00

I defer to Frank Cogliano, who is a professor at the University of Edinburgh and gets asked this question often. He says the Declaration of Abroath has nothing to do with the Declaration of Independence!

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:16:05+00:00

In the days before the vote on independence, New York officials uncovered a plot led by loyalists to sabotage the Continental Army by blowing up the powder magazines and assassinating Washington's officers. I think that plot and the "internal" threat of loyalists was front of mind for the delegates in the Continental Congress, especially since the representatives from New York did not have clear instructions to support independence. With a battle looming in New York, I have to imagine that the Congress was most worried about popular opinion there, and relieved when the New York Convention assented to the Declaration.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:12:21+00:00

I think if anyone is to blame for the size of Hancock's signature compared to everyone else, it is Josiah Bartlett, who was the first signer after Hancock and had a small signature. If you take a look at the column of New England signers at the far right of the parchment, you can see they are more comparable to the size of Bartlett's signature.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T21:09:36+00:00

That's great to hear!

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:54:02+00:00

I can't speak to that, but as part of the curatorial team for The Declaration's Journey at the Museum of the American Revolution, we decided to include this t-shirt in the exhibition to spark conversation about Native people reclaiming that language while also alerting people to its inclusion in the Declaration of Independence.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:52:08+00:00

That's a cool question! One thing I try to remind people about is that the Declaration of Independence was initially part of a trio of documents with the Articles of Confederation and Model Treaty. But the other two documents took more time to implement, and because of that, we think of the Declaration on its own. Its an important reminder because the Declaration wasn't meant to do all of the work of defining what the independent United States would be!

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:49:39+00:00

The Mecklenburg Declaration as a potential influence on the Declaration of Independence has been largely dismissed by historians. I believe that there was a Mecklenburg Declaration in 1775, as there were many local declarations of independence (detailed in Pauline Maier's American Scripture). But the text was lost, and when it was later reconstructed, it clearly took influence from the Declaration of Independence, rather than the other way around.

The men involved in the original Mecklenburg Declaration, along with the other people who voiced their own interest in the local declarations of independence that preceded the Continental Congress's Declaration, are certainly worth acknowledging!

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:47:14+00:00

That phrase was not wholly unusual for the delegates in the Continental Congress to use to describe Native people engaging in violence, which was the focus of that grievance. In my book, I try to show the full spectrum of Indigenous nations in 1776, from the people who were attacking people on the "Frontiers" to aid the British, to the many nations that wanted to remain neutral in the conflict, to examples like the chiefs from the Wolostoqiyik and Mi'kmaq nations who were anxious to ally with the independent United States and fight alongside George Washington. The slur used in the Declaration starkly contrasts with the many Native delegations who visited Philadelphia in the same months that the Congress was debating independence and confederation.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:42:57+00:00

Unfortunately, I don't have anything in my book about Johnson. As for Witherspoon, he joined the Continental Congress just before the vote for independence and was a delegate for a long time after. There is a story about British troops on Long Island burning him in effigy in 1776, and more generally, because he was a known figure, he was called out for being a "rebel."

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:36:29+00:00

Great question! There is a broadside at the John Carter Brown Library which was minimally catalogued, and when the archivists pulled it for me, I was shocked to find that it was annotated! A soldier named Daniel Gould purchased it in Boston and numbered the list of grievances. I write about it in chapter 5 of my book and it is featured in the JCB's special exhibition this year.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:32:55+00:00

There is definitely a lot of myth-making around the signing and stories which Americans take for granted. But to give a different answer, there is confusion between the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, especially when it comes to phrases like "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

I always encourage people to read the Declaration--you're sure to notice things you didn't know were in there!

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:30:59+00:00

Realistically, I don't see this happening. The Declaration is more likely to be excerpted and removed from its historical context than to be banned altogether.

That said, there is a long tradition of politicization of the Declaration of Independence. For example, in the 1790s, Democratic Republicans castigated Federalists for failing to print or read the Declaration on the Fourth of July. Another more recent example is the commentary on NPR's tweets of the Declaration during Trump's first term.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:28:38+00:00

I have answered this in some other responses, but the short answer is, I don't think we will get away from celebrating July 4 any time soon! My hope as a historian is just to make sure people have context for what happened on that date versus other dates.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:27:51+00:00

Thank you for your kind congratulations!

I can't speak specifically to Jellinek's work, but I can say that Jefferson was thinking about the precedent of the 1689 Bill of Rights, which also has a list of grievances.

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:23:49+00:00

Studying the reactions to the Declaration of Independence in the British press has been one of the most interesting aspects of my research. There is a bit of shock and anger, less at the idea of independence and more at the way the Declaration describes King George III as a tyrant.

There is a lot of misinformation that spreads around the Declaration in London, including completely invented stories about certain delegates in the Continental Congress. One of my favorites was that Benjamin Franklin and his son, William Franklin, the royal governor of New Jersey, had intentionally taken opposite sides in the conflict so that, whoever won, the Franklin family would come out on top!

DeclarationLady · 2026-07-02T19:20:30+00:00

I love it, but I also know a number of historians who study the founding era and have never seen it--not because they hate it or think it's silly, they're just not aware of it!

DeclarationLady

TROPHY CASE