Independence requires more than one day

Photograph by Josh Willink via Pexels

Dr. Marvin A. McMickle

There is only one year to go until the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence when thirteen colonies along the western Atlantic coast severed their ties with the British Empire. Two things come to mind as that day approaches. First, it was one thing to declare your intention to be independent from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, while seated in the First Continental Congress. That independence was not finally achieved until after years of bitter war, culminating in the battle of Yorktown, Virginia in 1781, followed by nearly two years of peace negotiations before Great Britain officially recognized the thirteen colonies as independent states with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Furthermore, that declaration was issued only on behalf of those persons who were intended to benefit from it, namely free and indentured white males.

Independence has always been a work in progress. Some of those who signed the Declaration of Independence agreed to do so only after their right to own human beings and maintain them in a state of perpetual slavery had first been guaranteed. In fact, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was allowed to continue by authority of the United States Constitution until 1807. The domestic slave trade where human beings were bought and sold and bred for slavery inside this country continued until the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1866.

This independence for some but not for all was at the heart of the famous speech given by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, when he said:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim… There is not a nation on earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States at this very hour.[i]

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed to you by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.[ii]

It is equally safe to say that independence was never intended for the indigenous persons, the Native Americans who resided across this country centuries before England, France, Spain, and the Dutch began laying claim to these lands in the name of their distant empires. Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution clearly set forth that “Indians” were not to be taxed because they were not to be considered citizens. That fact was made even clearer with the 1830 Indian Removal Act that resulted in the forced relocation of the so-called “five civilized tribes” (Cherokee, Seminole, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw).[iii] These nations were forcibly moved on foot from many of the states of the Southeastern United States, across the Mississippi River, to what became known as the Indian lands, and later as Oklahoma. So many Native people died during that forced migration that the journey became known as the Trail of Tears.

Independence has always been a work in progress. Who is entitled to the benefits of American citizenship remains at the heart of our national political discourse in 2025.

The true irony of this action in 1830, is that it allowed for the expansion of slavery and cotton production in that part of the country. Both the Native American and African American birds were killed with one stone so to speak. Land was essentially confiscated from one group to whom independence was being denied, and that same land was generating enormous wealth through the uncompensated labor of another group to whom independence was being denied. It also added to the notion of Manifest Destiny which became the guiding principle for American expansionism on the grounds that God intended that the United States, as a predominantly white nation, should extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

That Manifest Destiny faced some challenges as Chinese immigration was on the rise, especially in California, driven by the construction of railroads and a booming agricultural industry. Who would be allowed to enjoy American independence was limited by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur. From 1882 to 1892 Chinese immigration was considered illegal and naturalization of Chinese persons was denied because it seemed to many in this country that Chinese laborers were a threat to the job market for white workers.

Who is entitled to the benefits of American citizenship remains at the heart of our national political discourse in 2025. The last ten years have seen a rise in anti-immigration rhetoric and activity. There are near-daily reports of raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Persons are being arrested and detained in broad daylight. ICE agents who said they would be engaging in the mass removal of dangerous criminals and gang members can now be seen staking out the front door of local Home Depot stores hoping to detain any undocumented persons seeking day labor opportunities. Many undocumented workers are afraid to gather in places where they had previously been able to secure day labor for fear that ICE agents will detain them, separate them from their families, and deport them to countries where they had never held citizenship before arriving at the U.S. southern border. PBS reports that many undocumented persons are being sent to “third country” nations like Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, rather than to their countries of origin.

Recently, a small section of the city of Los Angeles, California was the site of tense encounters between that state’s National Guard and several hundred active-duty U.S. Marines and citizens trying to prevent nonviolent, undocumented persons from being deported. This was happening on the same day that President Donald Trump presided over a military parade designed to demonstrate to the world the great power held by the United States as we safeguard the “liberty, freedom, and independence” of our citizens. Independence has always been a work in progress. For some, that work is intended to protect the independence of some of the residents of this nation. For others, the work is designed to keep out or remove those who those in power believe have no place in this country.


Dr. Marvin A. McMickle is pastor emeritus at Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, professor emeritus at Ashland Theological Seminary, OH, and retired president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, NY.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.

[i] John R. McKivigan and Heather L. Kaufman, In the Words of Frederick Douglass: Quotations from Liberty’s Champion. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012, p. 103.

[ii] Ibid., p. 102.

[iii] The term was widely used during the 19th century, especially in the context of U.S. Indian policy. Today, the term is considered outdated and offensive, as it reflects a colonialist judgment that equated “civilization” with assimilation to white norms.

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