Let Freedom Ring

CHARACTERS (All Males):
JOHN NIXON
GEORGIA
SPECTATOR 2
NEW HAMPSHIRE
SPECTATOR 4

1776: The Liberty Bell Rings in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Liberty Bell rang out from the tower of the Pennsylvania's old State House, summoning citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon.
The Spectators, Georgia and New Hampshire are standing near the back of the crowd, listening to the reading.

JOHN NIXON: When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

GEORGIA: Boy, this is truly an exciting day for America! We are justified!

SPECTATOR 2: Quiet down! I cannot hear the speech.

GEORGIA: Lordy Lord, this is our declaration of independence from King George. I can’t help but burst at the seams over the pleasure. Freedom!

JOHN NIXON: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. …

SPECTATOR 2: I know this is exciting for you, but please, quiet.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Oh no! No! No! No! This can’t be. This is treacherous! What of those who don’t want independence? My goods come from England. My money is made from English items. I depend on England!

SPECTATOR 2: Not you, too. Keep it down!

JOHN NIXON: … than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government...

NEW HAMPSHIRE: This is a lamentable day! What if King George doesn’t want us to be free? Where will I get my goods? What will happen if this sparks outrage in King George?

GEORGIA: No need to fret. You got the materials in America. You got crafted men to make goods for purchase. God can only be on our side if it means freedom.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: They have already started fighting. We can’t go to war with England! We are but a minute nation. Their armada is vast!
SPECTATOR 2: Silence, you two!

GEORGIA: You be silent. Freedom is upon us, by God. This man has worries where there should be none.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: I have a young son. I cannot go to war. I am no soldier. I’m a merchandiser. I sell goods. What do I know of fighting?

JOHN NIXON: … He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people….

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Those sound like charges against the King! No!

GEORGIA: My Brethren, we must fight for our freedom of tyranny placed upon us by King George!

SPECTATOR 2: SHHHHH!

NEW HAMPSHIRE: This cannot be. This will surely bring war upon this tiny nation of ours. Even united, as the states we are, we will not be able to defeat England’s military force. There are soldiers already stationed within my home. I have been raided twice, despite no evidence. But I supply them and they supply me with safe transit of my merchandise from New Hampshire.

GEORGIA: I‘m a farmer from Georgia. My plantation may be one of the smallers of the state, but them Georgia boys are ready to fight for our property! Even the Negroes are up at arms on the matter. They dare not lose their luxuries!

NEW HAMPSHIRE: But freedom from England? War against England over property? Pay the damned taxes. Keep the peace. The King is busy, he’ll get to the laws. We are miles away and everything cannot be rushed.

JOHN NIXON: For imposing taxes on us without our consent. For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: They make the King’s rule sound criminal. It is for sure he’ll combat against our pathetic nation of farmers and whiners. I will be stuck in the middle, doomed to die. All because I would like to keep my ties with England. I shall perish. My son should perish. My wife.

GEORGIA: But think of the possibilities. Your son won’t have to pay unfair taxes to England to have a say in government. Your grandchildren won’t have to depend on England’s system. They can have their say. They won’t need England to tell them what to do with their property.

SPECTATOR 2: I swear! You two need to keep it down!

NEW HAMPSHIRE: This is treasonous. Such treachery will be dealt with swiftly by the King. He will not allow such charges to be brought against his reign.

GEORGIA: I’ll continue to produce my cotton and tobacco. I’ll have bountiful harvests and not pay one half-penny to the (sarcastic) Almighty King George. I’ll drink my tea without taxation, and watch the Negroes haul in the tobacco.

JOHN NIXON: He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

GEORGIA: I got a new shipment of Negroes, from Africa, coming in from the Caribbean. Boy am I glad they didn’t get caught by the armada this time. I hate to lose such good merchandise. I hear these are great Negroes from the middle of that dark, savage continent. That’s the merchandise you ought to be selling.

SPECTATOR 2: Oh Dear God! I swear! I’m moving away from you two! (leaves)

GEORGIA: Good riddance!

JOHN NIXON: He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: I cannot sell another human being.

GEORGIA: They’re hard workers. And the lazy ones will do anything asked with a strike of the whip. Why I had one the other day ask what their pay is. I walloped him good with the horse whip. He no longer asks for pay.

JOHN NIXON: … that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states;…

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Those are not goods that I could sell.

JOHN NIXON: … And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

GEORGIA: Course you could. You just gotta keep them in line. I read this letter from ol’ Willie Lynch. It’s is an old document, four years, I reckon. He tells you how to keep them in line. I do it and they do everything I say.

SPECTATOR 4: I couldn’t help but overhear, Georgia. This speech, Sir, this document they are reading. “all men are created equal,” “certain unalienable rights,” “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” What happens when your Negroes declare themselves independent as we have today?

(c) Copyright Xcesiv4ce 2009