meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Civics 101

The Declaration Does Not Apply

Civics 101

NHPR

History, Government, Society & Culture

4.22.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2022

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A few years ago, Civics 101 did a series revisiting the Declaration of Independence, and three groups for which the tenants of life, liberty, and property enshrined in that document did not apply. We bring you all three parts of that series today, and hear from legal and historical scholars about how Black Americans, Indigenous peoples, and women were excluded from our founding document, and how they responded.    Find the series page here.  Part 1: Byron Williams, author of The Radical Declaration, walks us through how enslaved Americans and Black Americans pushed against the document from the very beginning of our nation’s founding. Part 2: Writer and activist Mark Charles lays out the anti-Native American sentiments within it, the doctrines and proclamations from before 1776 that justified ‘discovery,’ and the Supreme Court decisions that continue to cite them all. Part 3: Laura Free,  host of the podcast Amended and professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, tells us about the Declaration of Sentiments, the document at the heart of the women’s suffrage movement. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

About a year ago, Hannah, we made an episode about the Declaration of Independence.

0:08.5

And it had a healthy dose of my enthusiasm for 1776.

0:12.1

The declaration will be a triumph.

0:13.9

I tell you a triumph.

0:15.8

And it had different takes from three scholars on what the document was.

0:20.7

It had the job of justifying one of the most consequential political decisions ever

0:25.0

taken.

0:26.0

It had the declaration of independence as originally written as a secession ordinance.

0:31.2

This was as close to a perfect document on human agency that won whatever fight.

0:39.1

And I love making that episode.

0:40.9

I really did.

0:42.8

And since then, the declaration has found its way into many of our episodes.

0:47.8

Yes, our exploration of that document feels forever unfinished.

0:52.0

And on the cutting room floor of that episode was something our guest, Byron Williams, said,

0:57.7

how the declaration was exclusionary.

1:01.5

But the ideas in it evolved into the words of Abraham Lincoln, James Baldwin, the poet

1:08.0

and activist Langston Hughes.

1:11.0

As we pass this most recent quarantine 4th of July, I call Byron up to just get a little

1:16.4

more on this.

1:17.4

And when does it take us three times before we start to start like 30 minutes?

1:25.4

I got 31 for you.

1:27.6

Byron Williams is a professor, theologian and host of the show, the public morality.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NHPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NHPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.