The British only stayed for a week, then marched out of town on July 4th, five years to the day after the American colonies had first declared their independence.
VOA: standard.2010.07.03
In her childhood, Independence was a townof some eleven thousand people, but its population has declined to about nine thousand.
In renewable energy news, the German townof Feldheim has set a new standard for energy independence by generating 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources and operating its own power grid.
Just inside them are the town barracks, built to defend the town in 1717, 10 years after the Act of Union which formally ended Scots independence - but crucially just two years after the Jacobite Rising of 1715.