We, The Other People

Description

First published in 1976, during the Bicentennial of the founding of the United States of America, Philip S. Foner’s We, The Other People: Alternative Declarations of Independence isn’t just a collection of documents. It is a call to action!

If the Declaration of Independence was the birth announcement for a nation and the invitation to its subsequent annual celebrations, then his collection represents the invitations “other people” wrote for themselves to a celebration from which they often felt excluded.

These are alternative declarations from African Americans, laborers, women, farmers, and socialist groups who felt the “birthday baby”—prominent and wealthy white men, often slave holders—hoarded too many of its gifts.

Here, collected for the first time, are the writings of various radical groups who looked at the most famous expression of American liberty and found its truths less than self-evident.

With an Introduction by Foner, this new edition of the long out-of-print We, The Other People is perfectly timed to correspond with the 250th Anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. It is a reminder that not everyone enjoyed or enjoys the fruits of liberty claimed in our founding documents.

Historian Lorenzo Costaguta, author of Workers of All Colors Unite: Race and the Origins of American Socialism, provides a new Foreword, as well as additional Appendix entries.