Notes from my Knapsack 7-2-2026
Jeff Gill
From Bicentennial to Semiquincentennial
___
When in the course of human events a nation advances from a bicentennial celebration in 1976 to a semiquincentennial in 2026, it becomes necessary for some columnists to admit fifty years have gone by, a period of time I recall quite distinctly.
Seriously, it’s been the bulk of my adult existence, and as I look back to what I thought about the United States of America as a junior in high school, and compare it to what I think now in this America 250 year, it feels worth asking: what has changed?
There are some historical passages which look very different to me now. One is early in our Midwestern history, as the end of the Revolution turns into the era of European settlement in the old Northwest Territory. Over the last three decades, my awareness of the displacement of indigenous people has gotten sharper and clearer, where before it was a misty presence of scattered “Indians” in the forest, brushed aside as the pioneers came to bring agriculture and civilization where it never had been.
Today, I’m much more conscious of how “Indian Removal” was an act of violence, and almost always a betrayal of previously negotiated treaties, right down to the Wyandot forced departure of 1843. And along with that acknowledgement, there’s some insight that’s come as I look at a landscape once dominated by the figure of Tecumseh. That Shawnee leader was and is a giant in the history of this area, but his younger brother Tenskwatawa, known as “The Prophet” is someone I’ve come to know a bit better. His teachings, his understandings of what was happening to his people, and to Native Americans more generally in the Ohio and Wabash River valleys, have something to say to us today, and are worth recovering.
In 1976, I knew Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration we celebrate each Fourth of July, and I honored him as a “Founding Father.” His relationship with Sally Hemings was something I had not heard of, and I will admit many years later when I did it was something I was initially skeptical about. That is no longer the case; in fact, I think our understanding of Jefferson is all the more complete and constructive for the fact that there is at Monticello an interpretive exhibit that presents the story of Sally Hemings in some detail, bringing forward the reality of slavery on that Virginia plantation, and forcing visitors to confront the inconsistencies of what Jefferson wrote, and what he did.
In many aspects of U.S. history, I am better informed than I was in the 1970s, and not just because I have more information stuffed into my brain. There are perspectives I now have that make the achievement of national independence more precious to me, for the fragility that I know surrounds it. Liberty is made possible by people, doing the right thing, sometimes after they’ve first done the wrong thing.
And “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that” we engage in such reflection and consideration of our past, so we can continue to expand the scope of liberty into the future. Rights and responsibilities in “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” still call on each of us to choose the good, and to do it.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s taught early American history in many settings, academic and otherwise. Tell him how your understanding of our history has changed at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
Jeff Gill
From Bicentennial to Semiquincentennial
___
When in the course of human events a nation advances from a bicentennial celebration in 1976 to a semiquincentennial in 2026, it becomes necessary for some columnists to admit fifty years have gone by, a period of time I recall quite distinctly.
Seriously, it’s been the bulk of my adult existence, and as I look back to what I thought about the United States of America as a junior in high school, and compare it to what I think now in this America 250 year, it feels worth asking: what has changed?
There are some historical passages which look very different to me now. One is early in our Midwestern history, as the end of the Revolution turns into the era of European settlement in the old Northwest Territory. Over the last three decades, my awareness of the displacement of indigenous people has gotten sharper and clearer, where before it was a misty presence of scattered “Indians” in the forest, brushed aside as the pioneers came to bring agriculture and civilization where it never had been.
Today, I’m much more conscious of how “Indian Removal” was an act of violence, and almost always a betrayal of previously negotiated treaties, right down to the Wyandot forced departure of 1843. And along with that acknowledgement, there’s some insight that’s come as I look at a landscape once dominated by the figure of Tecumseh. That Shawnee leader was and is a giant in the history of this area, but his younger brother Tenskwatawa, known as “The Prophet” is someone I’ve come to know a bit better. His teachings, his understandings of what was happening to his people, and to Native Americans more generally in the Ohio and Wabash River valleys, have something to say to us today, and are worth recovering.
In 1976, I knew Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration we celebrate each Fourth of July, and I honored him as a “Founding Father.” His relationship with Sally Hemings was something I had not heard of, and I will admit many years later when I did it was something I was initially skeptical about. That is no longer the case; in fact, I think our understanding of Jefferson is all the more complete and constructive for the fact that there is at Monticello an interpretive exhibit that presents the story of Sally Hemings in some detail, bringing forward the reality of slavery on that Virginia plantation, and forcing visitors to confront the inconsistencies of what Jefferson wrote, and what he did.
In many aspects of U.S. history, I am better informed than I was in the 1970s, and not just because I have more information stuffed into my brain. There are perspectives I now have that make the achievement of national independence more precious to me, for the fragility that I know surrounds it. Liberty is made possible by people, doing the right thing, sometimes after they’ve first done the wrong thing.
And “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that” we engage in such reflection and consideration of our past, so we can continue to expand the scope of liberty into the future. Rights and responsibilities in “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” still call on each of us to choose the good, and to do it.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s taught early American history in many settings, academic and otherwise. Tell him how your understanding of our history has changed at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
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