Embedded Files
Declaration of Independence.mp4The Declaration.mp4History of the 4th of July_ Crash Course US History Special.mp4The Declaration of Independence is one of the most famous documents in United States history. A declaration of independence is a document created by the people of one country to say they are no longer part of another country.
Happy Fourth of July!
Americans celebrate Independence Day every July 4th. Many people believe that July 4, 1776, was the day that the United States became independent. However, representatives of the Thirteen Colonies actually voted for independence on July 2nd. July 4th marks the day that the representatives approved the specific wording of the Declaration of Independence.
Do other countries have declarations of independence?
Yes! In 1776, the United States issued one of the first declarations of independence. However, in the last two centuries, many other countries have also issued declarations of independence. Some, such as Venezuela and Vietnam, even used language partly inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776. The timeline shows some of the major events before and after July 1776.
The Revolutionary War started in 1775 and ended in 1783. The Declaration of Independence was approved in 1776. So, the Declaration was approved during the Revolutionary War.
The Constitution was drafted in 1787, around ten years after the Declaration of Independence had been drafted in 1776. One similarity between the two documents was that they were both drafted by representatives.
The Declaration was drafted by representatives of the Thirteen Colonies. However, after independence these colonies became states. So, the Constitution was approved by representatives of the 13 states.
The Continental Congress appointed a committee of five men to draft the Declaration of Independence. The committee decided that Thomas Jefferson should write the first draft of the document.
Why was Thomas Jefferson chosen to write the Declaration of Independence?
Jefferson ended up getting the job for several reasons:
The other members of the writing committee were either too busy, such as John Adams, or too sick, such as Benjamin Franklin.
Thomas Jefferson was from the South. Some representatives thought that if Jefferson wrote the Declaration, other Southerners might be persuaded to support independence.
Jefferson was a shy man who almost never spoke in Congress. However, he was known as a great writer. Later, John Adams reported he had said that Jefferson should write the Declaration since Jefferson "can write ten times better than I can."
The Declaration of Independence went through many edits before it was finally approved by the Continental Congress.
Have you ever done peer editing?
Before approving the Declaration, the representatives edited and changed much of the document. Thomas Jefferson disliked that his writing had to go through so many edits. For the rest of his life, Jefferson complained that the other representatives had made the Declaration worse. Sometimes listening to criticism is hard!
However, the other representatives believed that they had a right to make changes, since they all had to sign the Declaration. Today, many scholars argue that most of the representatives' edits made the Declaration clearer and better.
Some documents include an introduction called a preamble (pree-AM-bul). The passage below is a famous part of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Read the passage. Then follow the instructions below.
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 . . .
self-evident: obviously true
endowed: given
unalienable: permanent
What do "unalienable rights" have to do with declaring independence?
A right is something that a person should always have, and that no one should be able to take away. The drafters of the Declaration argued that the British government had tried to take away their rights to life, freedom, and the chance to pursue their goals.
Did the drafters come up with the idea of rights?
No. By talking about rights, the drafters were drawing on many different sources. For example, the English philosopher John Locke had argued that people have a right to life, liberty, and property. In the 1770s, many people in the colonies were using the idea of rights to describe why they were angry at Great Britain.
The Declaration uses the word "men" in the phrase "all men are created equal." Over the last two centuries, people have debated what the drafters of the Declaration of Independence meant by that word. Some people have argued that they meant the preamble to apply only to white men. Others have argued that they meant it to apply to all people.
Human rights today
No matter what the drafters meant by the use of the word "men" in 1776, it is widely held today that all human beings have rights that should be protected. In 1948, the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document stated that all human beings deserve to have their rights protected.
Like people in most countries, Americans still debate about what those rights are and how they should be protected.
After stating what rights people have, the Declaration of Independence describes why people form governments.
To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, [getting] 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.
secure: protect
instituted: formed
consent: agreement
ends: goals
alter: change
abolish: destroy
According to the Declaration of Independence, people form governments to protect their rights. When a government goes against this goal, people have the right to change the government.
Do people have a right to revolution?
In the 18th century, there was disagreement about whether people had any right to oppose their rulers. Some people argued that rulers such as kings deserved the loyalty of their subjects. Other people argued that rulers needed to earn the loyalty of their subjects, and they should lose that loyalty if they abused their power.
he Declaration of Independence accuses the British king of harming the American colonies in many different ways. These accusations take up over half of the text of the Declaration.
How did the British government react to the Declaration of Independence?
Overall, British officials thought the Declaration of Independence was ridiculous. The drafters of the Declaration of Independence blamed the war on the king. But British officials blamed the colonial leaders, such as the members of the Congress, for leading the colonies into disaster.
Like some other British officials, King George III believed that most Americans did not want independence. In a speech to the British legislature after the Declaration, he said that it was necessary to crush this rebellion quickly so it didn't spread.
Jefferson's draft of the Declaration included some words that did not make it into the final document. The Continental Congress spent days debating changes to Jefferson's draft.
For example, Jefferson originally accused King George III of spreading slavery. The Continental Congress decided not to include this line. Read the line that was cut. Then follow the instructions below.
He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery.
waged: fought
human nature: humanity
violating: taking away
a distant people: Africans
offended: harmed
captivating: capturing
Congressional representatives who supported slavery would probably want this language to be removed.
Why did the Congress cut out the section about slavery?
Many colonies benefited from slavery. Jefferson blamed the representatives from the colonies most dependent on slave grown crops, such as South Carolina, and on the slave trade, such as Rhode Island, for removing this passage.
Monticello isThomas Jefferson's plantation. Jefferson owned hundreds of enslaved people at Monticello during his life.
Not all the representatives from these colonies wanted the passage removed. Jefferson himself benefited from slavery, since he owned a large plantation. Jefferson's own views on slavery were complicated. Historians still debate how much Jefferson opposed slavery.
The last section of the Declaration of Independence is called the conclusion. There, the Continental Congress said that for all the reasons they had listed, they were declaring the United States independent. They went on to describe all the things the United States could now do. Read the passage. Then answer the question below.
As free and independent states, [the United States] have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do.
levy: fight
contract alliances: make deals or partnerships with other countries
commerce: trade with other countries
New country! Now open for business!
In 1776, the American colonies were in the middle of a war with Great Britain. They were short of money, resources, and military power. By declaring independence, Americans hoped that other countries would start taking them seriously. These countries, such as France, the Netherlands, and Spain, could now trade with the United States, or even help the new country win the war!
France was one of the most powerful countries in the world, so the signers of the Declaration wanted to gain French support. France eventually agreed to an alliance with the United States and joined the war against Great Britain.
Did all the representatives sign the Declaration?
No. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania refused to sign. Dickinson had opposed many British laws. However, he thought it was a mistake for the colonies to leave Great Britain forever. After Congress had voted for independence, Dickinson resigned from the Congress.
But Dickinson's beliefs were complicated. He still thought British laws should be opposed. After resigning, Dickinson joined the Continental Army to fight for the United States!
Although Congress approved the Declaration of Independence in early July, it took weeks for word to spread to most Americans.
Why did some Americans oppose independence?
Most Americans who opposed independence were loyalists, or people who supported Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. People had many different reasons for being loyalists:
Many enslaved people supported the British during the war. Some British officials promised enslaved people that if they supported the king, they would be freed after the war.
Some Americans thought Great Britain protected the colonies from other countries such as France. They thought it was dangerous to leave Great Britain.
Some wealthy Americans believed that independence would lead to common people having too much power.
After the Revolutionary War, slavery still existed in the United States. In the 1800s, anti-slavery activists quoted the Declaration to argue that it was wrong for some people to own other people.
Review the definitions of some words from the Declaration of Independence.
self-evident: obviously true
endowed: given
unalienable: cannot be taken away
secure: protect
instituted: formed
consent: agreement
ends: goals
alter: change
abolish: destroy
Imagine you are an anti-slavery activist in the 1800s. You want to give a speech saying it is wrong to treat enslaved people unfairly. Select the part of the Declaration that would have been most useful to quote in a speech.
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 to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, getting 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.
Celebrating independence in a land with slavery
In 1852, the formerly enslaved person Frederick Douglass gave a speech about the Fourth of July. Douglass argued that for enslaved people, Independence Day celebrations were just reminders of how unfairly they were treated.
However, Douglass also believed that the Declaration of Independence contained important principles, such as the idea that all people should have rights. Douglass gave his audience this advice:
Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
Douglass believed that if Americans actually tried to honor the principles in the Declaration, they would end slavery.
Over the last two centuries, the Declaration of Independence has inspired many different groups of people to fight for equality. In 1848, a group of men and women met at the Seneca Falls Convention.
They produced a document called the Declaration of Sentiments. This document used much of the same language as the Declaration of Independence.
The words of the Declaration have remained powerful, even centuries after they were first written. In 1963, the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a famous speech in Washington, D.C. In his "I Have a Dream" speech, King talked about the Declaration of Independence.
When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were [making a promise to all future Americans].
It is obvious today that America has [broken that promise as far] as her citizens of color are concerned.
I say to you today, my friends, that even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
architects of our republic: founders of the United States
citizens of color: African American people
creed: statement of belief
In his speech, Martin Luther King, Jr., argued that the promise of the Declaration of Independence should be applied to all Americans. King argued that for African American people, the United States had not fulfilled the promises of the Declaration of Independence. However, King was hopeful about the possibility of the United States reaching the goals written in the Declaration of Independence.
Is the Declaration of Independence a promise for all Americans?
In 1776, most of the delegates did not believe that the Declaration of Independence would be an important document for long. However, over the last two centuries, many different groups and individuals have used the Declaration to argue that the United States should protect the rights of all.
Today, the Declaration is considered one of the most important documents in American history. Americans still argue about which rights should be guaranteed to every person. What do the words "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" mean to you?
Page updated
Report abuse