This was not the sort of idea that Britain was going to sit still for. King George sent troops to knock heads together in the rebellious and troublesome colonies. America knocked back.

On July 4, 1776, America officially declared itself to be independent of Britain, but it took years of deadly war to make that independence a reality. At last, in 1783, the British sailed away from the new United States of America, and the war was over.

This new nation had been born in a storm of bullets and cannon fire, and Americans had pulled together with united hearts in the wartime emergency. But now it was time to see what kind of nation it was when the emergency was over. A Union of free states. What a grand idea! What kind of place was it going to be, where all men were created equal?

What kind of—but wait. Back up a moment. All men were created equal?

What about the slaves?