July Fourth is what everyone knows as Independence Day, but I believe the "celebration" part for the African Americans is what has now become questionable. July 4, 1776 is when America won their Independence from England, which many already knew. However, African Americans did not gain their freedom until the year of 1865. 1776 to 1865 is actually 89, so it was not until 89 years after America gained their freedom that slavery was abolished. So I suppose the question that our generation is now asking is basically, "Do we celebrate this holiday or do we wait until the date slavery was ended to celebrate?"

To Celebrate

Now in my opinion I believe slavery would not have been abolished until much later if America did not gain independence. The entire existence of slavery happened only because of England in the first place. Between the escapades of killing all the Native Americans and running them off of their own land to finding more reasons than one to ship themselves to Africa to steal people England with the 13 colonies of which we now call America were both selfish. With England basically owning America and making all the laws even if the whites who were in control wanted to set the slaves free I believe it would have been more than just a problem.

To Not Celebrate

I can see how one could find reasons to not celebrate the holiday America uses to mark our freedom from England. As I stated before we as African Americans (known as blacks during that era) were not free we were still viewed as property not people. Because of this some of my generation has found it quite necessary to view the Fourth of July as just another day instead of a day to celebrate America's freedom.

Now to be quite honest, I believe it is OK to celebrate the Fourth of July. We celebrate a lot of other holidays that either did not have anything to do with African Americans or that came about while our ancestors were still enslaved. I plan to continue to celebrate the Fourth of July for two reasons. The first being, that if America did not gain independence from England I am very sure we'd probably be slaves, and the second reason is probably the only reason any child knows it is a time to be around the ones you love.

So before we all decide to be just a tad too deep let us all remember that we all live in America and the independence has had a lasting effect on us all. Just imagine what we would not be able to do without it.