In 1776, why did Americans think of themselves as British? @BrookingsInstitution
In 1776, why did Americans think of themselves as British? @BrookingsInstitution
Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
On this episode of Democracy in Question, host Katie Dunn Tenpas speaks with Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, about the Declaration’s most consequential closing phrase.

From the founders’ dual loyalties to the erosion of "sacred honor,” they illuminate what mutually pledging their “Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor” demanded in 1776 and what it asks of Americans now.

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In 1776, why did Americans think of themselves as British?

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