Topic: America 250: From Declaration to Destiny The Days After Declaring Independence
When: Tuesday 7/7/2026 at 2:00 pm ET
What were the days immediately following July 4, 1776 like for our young republic?
We all know Independence Day as a day of magnificent celebration and joy, but the days following July 4, 1776 were actually a blend of public celebration and sobering reality, with many colonists in great anxiety and fear.
By adopting the Declaration, the Founders weren’t just making a political statement; they were committing high treason against the most powerful empire on earth. With the stroke of a pen, they risked the hangman’s noose and the loss of everything they owned.
Out in the streets, the public was deeply divided, families were being torn apart by conflicting loyalties, and a massive British military force was actively arriving in New York Harbor to crush the rebellion. And as riders frantically carried the Declaration across the colonies to a terrified public, copies were also loaded onto ships, beginning a tense, weeks-long voyage across the Atlantic to personally deliver the treasonous news to King George III.
To help our student panel walk through this perilous week and the terrifying reality of building a new nation, we are honored to welcome Jonathan Den Hartog, Professor and Chair of History at Samford University.
Constitutional Chats are hosted by Janine Turner, Cathy Gillespie, student ambassadors, and experts who join us weekly to discuss hot-topic issues! The audience is not on camera, but you may ask questions!
Meet the Guest
Jonathan Den Hartog
Jonathan Den Hartog is Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Samford University. He came to Samford in 2019, after having previously taught for over a decade at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul, Minnesota. He spent the 2012-13 academic year as the Garwood Visiting Fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He received his PhD in American History from the University of Notre Dame in 2006.
Hartog’s interests are in the religious and political history of the colonial, revolutionary and early national periods of America. His first book, Patriotism and Piety: Federalist Politics and Religious Struggle in the New American Nation, was published by the University of Virginia Press in 2015. Most recently, he published a volume he co-edited with legal expert Carl Esbeck, on Disestablishment and Religious: Church-State Relations in the New American States, 1776-1833 (University of Missouri Press, 2019). Hartog has published articles in Early American Studies, the Journal of Church and State and in several edited volumes. His public writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Hill.