The Declaration of Independence What are the main ideas in the Declaration of Independence? Social Studies Vocabulary Declaration of Independence Founding Fathers militia Minuteman Second Continental Congress Introduction The colonists continued to debate over whether they should declare their independence from Great Britain. In this lesson, you will learn about the point of view of Patriot leaders, such as Thomas Jefferson. These men wanted to separate themselves from British rule and form a new country. By May 1775, fighting between the colonies and Great Britain had already begun in Massachusetts. Each colony sent delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to make a plan to fight the war. This Congress became the government for the colonists. It had to decide how to organize their troops and choose someone to lead them. This Congress also had another task. It had to decide whether to declare independence from Great Britain. By early 1776, the number of colonists who favored independence had grown. One reason for this is because of a pamphlet written by Patriot Thomas Paine. The pamphlet he wrote is called Common
Sense. Paine argued persuasively for independence, presenting his argument in terms that the common man could understand. Soon a decision was reached. The Congress decided to declare independence, but it needed to write a document that explained why the colonies had the right to be free from British rule. It chose five delegates to do this, including young Thomas Jefferson. At a portable desk, Jefferson wrote the first draft of this document. 1. The Second Continental Congress On May 10, 1775, leaders met in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress. George Washington arrived from Virginia in his blue and tan uniform, while John Adams came from Massachusetts. Benjamin Franklin sailed all the way back from Great Britain to represent Pennsylvania. In all, delegates from all 13 colonies took part in the Congress. These men were soon acting as the new government. The first Continental Congress had met in 1774 to protest the Intolerable Acts. This second Congress faced three key tasks. The most urgent task was to organize the colonies for war against the British. Just before the Congress met, British troops had fought against local Minutemen and militia. The battle took place in the towns of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. The Congress knew that the colonies needed a more organized military to fight the powerful British forces, so it created the Continental army and navy. The next task was to decide who should lead the new army. Congress quickly chose a good soldier and a strong leader George Washington. The third and hardest task was to decide whether to declare independence from Great Britain. Some Patriots, such as John Adams who strongly supported it, were ready to take this step. But there were
still delegates loyal to King George III who hoped the colonies could make peace with Great Britain. 2. Thomas Paine and Common Sense Many colonists, too, were not sure about independence from Great Britain. They wanted the king to listen to their complaints, but they were still loyal British citizens. In addition, they feared that the colonies could not win a war against the strong British army. In the mid-1700s, people in Europe were exploring new ideas about science, government, and human rights. One key idea was that all people should have freedom and fair treatment under the law. This time is called the Age of Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason. Writers of the period published their ideas in newspapers, pamphlets, and booklets. These ideas spread through Europe and the American colonies. One man who believed in these new ideas was Thomas Paine. In 1774, Paine came to the colonies from England. In January of 1776 he published a pamphlet called Common Sense, which argued that people should rule themselves rather than be ruled by a king. America, Paine said, could show the world a better form of government. Common Sense reached many people because Paine wrote simply in words that all could understand. Many colonists still thought of Great Britain as their parent country. But Paine said that parents do not make war upon their families. The blood of the Patriots killed in Massachusetts, he wrote, cried out that it was time to separate from Great Britain. He said the colonists could defeat the British army. Soon, more than 500,000 copies of Common Sense had been sold. Never before had so many copies of one book been published in the
colonies. People everywhere read it, including soldiers in the Continental Army. George Washington wrote that Common Sense was changing minds. By the spring of 1776, many people were ready to support a vote for independence. 3. Writing the Declaration of Independence The Second Continental Congress began to move toward independence. On June 7, 1776, a delegate from Virginia proposed a resolution. It said that these United Colonies are, and by right ought to be, free and independent States. The Congress agreed to think about whether to accept this resolution. It chose five men as a committee to write a document to explain why the colonies should be independent. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were part of this group. A studious Virginian named Thomas Jefferson was also a member. Jefferson was only 33 years old, but he was already known as a fine writer and thinker. His fellow committee members asked him to write a draft of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson set up a folding desk in his room and began to write. For about two weeks, he wrote and rewrote his draft before finally showing his draft to the other committee members. Adams and Franklin made a few changes to it before eventually giving the document to the Congress. For a few days, the members of the Congress argued about independence. Then, on July 2, the delegates voted to separate from Great Britain. The Congress spent the next two days carefully discussing the language of the Declaration. They voted to make a number of changes. Delegates from two southern colonies, where plantation owners used slaves, objected to statements about slavery. Congress
removed Jefferson's statement that slavery was a cruel war against human nature. Some of the changes angered Jefferson, but everyone knew that all the colonies had to agree in order for them to become a united country. Finally, on July 4, 1776, Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. 4. Approving the Declaration of Independence The delegates approved a handwritten copy of the Declaration, knowing that this was an act of treason toward the king. John Hancock was the president of the Congress, and he warned the delegates that they must all hang together, or stay united. Benjamin Franklin replied, We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. The punishment for treason was death by hanging. When the time came for the Founding Fathers to sign the Declaration, Hancock signed first, writing his name in large bold letters. His signature became famous. To this day, people call their signature a John Hancock. Then Jefferson and the other delegates signed, too. Congress sent copies of the document to each of the colonies and to the Continental army. Excited Patriots celebrated when they heard the news about the Declaration. A crowd in Philadelphia cheered when it was read in public for the first time on July 8. General Washington's troops heard it the next day. Then soldiers and citizens tore down a statue of King George III and used the metal to make bullets. Patriot troops in Boston fired guns and cannons to honor the event. Everywhere, church bells rang, and parades and bonfires popped up. Today, Americans still mark the birth of our country on the Fourth of July. On this date the delegates to the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
5. The Declaration of Independence The delegates to the Second Continental Congress wanted to explain why the colonies wished to form a separate nation. The following excerpts from the Declaration of Independence are part of this explanation. The first excerpt tells why the colonists felt they needed to write the document. When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. The second excerpt lists some of the rights all people should have. 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. The third excerpt explains why government exists. It also describes citizens' rights if the government acts unfairly. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,...
The fourth excerpt presents a general complaint against King George III. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. The fifth excerpt declares the colonies' independence. (We) solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved;...
Lesson Summary In this lesson, you read about the Second Continental Congress. It governed the colonies, formed an army, and picked George Washington as the new nation's military leader. It also took steps to separate from Great Britain. Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense. He used simple language to argue why the colonies had to separate from Great Britain. The pamphlet swayed many colonists who were unsure about independence from Great Britain. Paine played a key role in convincing colonists all over America that declaring independence from Great Britain was the right move. Thomas Jefferson was a young man when he wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. He used some other documents as resources when writing, including a copy of Common Sense. The Second Continental Congress made some changes to the Declaration before approving it on July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence explained why the colonists wanted to form a separate nation. After declaring independence, the colonists started preparing their troops for war with the British.
Jefferson's Conflict: Ideas vs. Reality The Declaration announced the start of a new nation. It also had bold ideas about equal rights for all people. These ideas were hard to put into practice. How did Thomas Jefferson's words differ from the reality of his life and the times in which he lived? In June of 1776, Thomas Jefferson completed his draft of the Declaration of Independence. He included ideas in which he deeply believed, and he felt proud of his work. But now, the draft was being torn apart by other members of the Second Continental Congress. Line by line, the delegates studied Jefferson's words. In one section they would cut a word or sentence, and in other places, they would add on. Jefferson was troubled because, in his eyes, his strongest statements were weakened, while others had been entirely removed. It seemed to Jefferson that the delegates were overly afraid of angering the British government and were holding back as a result. Yet the young Virginian said nothing. He sat in silence, feeling angry and ashamed. Ideals and Reality Jefferson was most upset about the changes related to slavery, as his draft of the Declaration had strong language on the subject. The king, Jefferson wrote, had denied the sacred rights of life and liberty... of a
distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery.... Jefferson blamed the king for refusing to let the colonies pass laws ending the slave trade. No one argued in favor of Jefferson's wording, and the delegates took this part out from the draft. The final Declaration of Independence would state that all men are created equal, but it would say nothing about slavery. Jefferson thought slavery was wrong, believing that it hurt whites as well as enslaved Africans. There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us, he wrote.jefferson looked forward to the day when slavery would end, as he thought whites learned to be tyrants from it. Jefferson took steps against slavery, leading efforts in the 1760s and 1770s to end the importing of slaves into the colonies. In 1774, he wrote, The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in these colonies. Later, he created a plan for freeing enslaved Africans. He opposed the spread of slavery beyond the South, yet few white men of his time and place held similar views. Jefferson's actions regarding slavery were not so clear in his personal life. During his lifetime, he owned about 600 slaves. At any one time, 200 slaves worked for him. He earned money from slave labor and sold slaves to pay off debts. Jefferson also thought that freed slaves could not live side-by-side with whites, instead believing that they must be sent far away. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate that these people are to be
free, he wrote late in his life. Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Conflicting Views on Slavery Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. And the delegates of the Second Continental Congress approved these words. A belief in equality was at the heart of the Declaration. Because Jefferson felt that all men were equal, he believed they had certain rights. If a government denied those rights, he thought, the people could reject that government. Jefferson had learned about many of these ideas from Age of Enlightenment readings, which contained the works of Europe's greatest minds in the 1600s and 1700s. John Locke and Thomas Paine (the author of the Common Sense pamphlet) were two Age of Enlightenment writers that Jefferson admired. But what about the equality and rights of enslaved Africans? British writer Samuel Johnson saw the conflict between the ideas of some American leaders and their actions. How is it, he wrote, that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes [slave owners]? Some colonists also saw the problem at hand and made their doubts clear. John Adams' wife Abigail wrote to her husband about it, wondering how the colonists could fight for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have. There was much disagreement over slavery in the colonies, with some colonists believing that Africans were not equal to white people. Others, like Abigail Adams, felt that slavery was wrong and that
all people should have the same rights. In the middle were men such as Jefferson, who saw the need to end slavery but thought that it would take time.he also believed that freed Africans would need to learn new skills and should move to some other place where they could thrive. For now, Jefferson knew, slavery would remain an unfortunate part of American life. As it is, we have the wolf by the ears, he once wrote on the subject of slavery. We can neither hold him nor safely let him go. For years, the idea of equality between black and white people would remain only words on a page. Yet they were powerful words. And they would not be forgotten. Other Inequalities Many people realized, as Jefferson did, that the treatment of slaves fell far short of the idea behind the words all men are created equal. But they felt less concern for the unequal treatment of other groups in the colonies. American Indians were one example, as their rights mattered little to most white people. Jefferson admired American Indians and believed in treating them fairly. But he felt that American Indians should give up their traditions and way of life and that they should live more like white people. Another group not included in the ideal that all men are created equal was women. Like many men of his time, Jefferson believed a woman's purpose was to be a wife and a mother. Women had few legal rights and could not vote. Along with most men at the time, Jefferson saw no need for women to have the same education that men did. Jefferson felt that men and women had different roles in the world. Since most women in the colonies did not receive an education,
Jefferson did not expect women to care about politics. But when Jefferson had lived in France, he saw that women were active in matters of government. Jefferson was upset by this. He was used to the United States where females took little interest in political issues. It would be a number of years before many American women began to fight for equality. In 1776, the statement all men are created equal really only applied to white males. Eventually, the statement would start to include other groups as well.