A good crowd gathered to hear the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence at West Cadiz Park Saturday morning. The annual event is hosted by the Colonel Stephen Trigg Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, whose members were dressed in Revolutionary War attire.
Chapter President Bob Roberts served as the Master of Ceremonies and stepped back in time and set the stage for what the thirteen American colonies, that were at war with Great Britain, were facing at the time.
click to download audioRevolutionary War Author, Speaker and Living Historian Geoff Baggett then read the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
click to download audioThe Declaration of Independence announced that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.
click to download audioCongress then issued the document in several forms and carried copies to cities and villages throughout the thirteen states over the course of several weeks. The first copy reached Boonesborough on the Kentucky frontier in August 1776.
Following the reading, Steve Mallory, past president, Kentucky State Society, Sons of the American Revolution honored the thirteen colonies whose representatives approved the Declaration of Independence to establish the United States of America by tolling the bell. The thirteen colonies included Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Virginia.
After the ringing of the bell, there was a musket and cannon salute followed by Baggett leading the crowd in a celebration of the song “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”.
