How old is the declaration of independence today

Today the population of the U. The oldest signer of the Declaration was Benjamin Franklin, who was born in and was therefore already 70 at the time of the Declaration. Franklin went on to help negotiate the Treaty of Alliance with France in and the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War in The only signer of the Declaration of Independence to survive beyond the 50th anniversary of the signing was Charles Carroll of Maryland.

Carroll died in when he was 95 years old. The copy of the Declaration of Independence that is housed at the National Archives is not the draft that was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, Instead it is a formal copy that the Continental Congress hired someone to make for them after the text was approved.

This formal copy was probably made by Timothy Matlack, an assistant to the Secretary of Congress. This copy was signed on August 2, The United States didn't exist until after the Declaration was signed! However, all but eight of the signers were born in colonies that would become the United States. The first public reading of the Declaration took place on July 8, , in Philadelphia. A fictional story written in the s suggested that the bell now known as the Liberty Bell was rung that day to bring the people together.

However, historians now doubt that this happened. Who Celebrated? W ere there any enslaved people there? If there, were they equally celebrating? No doubt we know the answers because for centuries enslaved African Americans and other cultural minorities were deprived of equality and civil rights.

Until the Fourteenth Amendment July 9, , African Americans were exempt from citizenship and equal protection. The Chinese Exclusion Act May 6, denied admission to these immigrants. Women could not vote until the Nineteenth Amendment August 18, Central American and Mexican children are separated from their families and detained at the borders. The list goes on. African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos — all people should be treated equally under the law and protected from police brutality.

For centuries, our nation has preached equality as our cardinal virtue while burdening African Americans with systemic inequality. The horrific murders of George Floyd , Breonna Taylor , and Ahmaud Arbery , together with the disproportionate impact of COVID on both the health and economic conditions of African Americans, have laid bare the continuing challenges of racism in America.

Racism in this country is not an accident. Local, state, and federal government policy—enforced by our courts—formed the architecture of inequality and though, in very recent history, some racist practices have ended, our government has never been made accountable for these longstanding practices or been forced to uproot that which it so carefully built over multiple generations.

Seven delegates were absent. Seven other members of the July 4 meeting never signed the document, Friedenwald said. Toggle navigation. Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center. Sign up for our email newsletter.