The Declaration Of Independence by Thomas Jefferson

Crossing the Delaware River

Writing The Declaration of Independence....Kind of

Declaring Indepencence

By the Spring of 1776, Piane's ideas had built a great momentum for the American Independence.

Noting this shift of opinion in the people, the Congress selected a committee to draft a document for America's independence and the reasons for it's declaration.

On July 1776, the 2nd Continental Congress declared that America was now independent. Two days laters they all signed the decleration. Thomas Jefferson was chosen to draft the declaration and for it he used Paine's ideas and denounced the king as a tyrant.

"All men are created equal", was a phrase on the declaration that later on led to the civil war.

The declaration had many powerful ideas. One of it's most powerful ones was "People have unalienable rights", rights that could not be taken away. These rights were: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

After this came to the ears of the king, the colonists had to go through many complications. They went through 5 years of war because the British didn't accept their declaration.

Thomas Paine and Common Sense

In January 1776 a small book called, Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine became quite powerful in the role of independence.

This book which many american read, expressed clearly what they thought. Many if the ideas expressed in this book would later on be written in the decleration of indepencence.

In simple, direct language, Paine proposed his radical ideas of how the colonies should take action. One of his proposals was the independence from Britain, the second was the creation of a republican state government, and last but most important, the union of the new states.

In Common Sense, Paine denounces the king and British aristocrates as frauds and parasites. He wanted the common people to be able to elect their own government. He blaimed the king, rather then Parliament, as the greatest enemy of America.

He claimed that a republic would reward people for their hard work and not for tittles. He said that, free from the empire, America would be able to trade with the whole world.

"The cause of America, is the cause for all man kind".

Loyalits and Patriots

Although most of the colonists suppported the idea of an independence, there was still a minority that prefered the British rule. These people were called the loyalists.

These loyalists feared the patriots and thought they were brutal. One of them even declared: "If I must be a slave, let it be by the king and not by vermins". Obiously vermins refering to the Patriots. They feared that the Patriots' resistance would cause war with Britain and doubted they could defeat them.

In Summer of 1774, John Adams(patriot) and Jonathan Sewell(loyalist) walked together and disscused the crisis. Sewell warned Adams that the British army was quite powerful, but Adams didn't let that stop him.

People thought the loyalists were rich people who sold their fellow colonists just to gain a position in government, but that was all a stereotype. They were really just normal folk, farmers, part of the minority.

To support the war, the Patriots had to place taxes and create and oath of alligence. They also shut down the newspapers of the loyalists. Because of all of this the loyalists began to think that the Patriots were worse than the British. The native american and the slaves also started to side with the loyalists.
Thousands of enslaved people in the South escaped and joined the British army.

Continental Congress Video

This video doesn't really show what actually happened during the congress....but it a fun way to find out what the congress was about.... Enjoy

2nd Continental Congress

In May 1775, delegates from all colonies assembled once again in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress. It would assume the responsibility of war, if it were to arrise by the British.

The Congress sent volunteers from each colony to help the prepare with the Patriots in Boston. Durin this congress was when the Continental Army was created. This army would be commanded by Gral. George Washington.

Some of the radical members of the congress wanted to declare their independence, they also recognized that maybe the people of America were not ready for something like that and wanted to remain loyal to the king.

In July 1775, they sent the Olive Branch Petition to the king, asking for peace between Britain and America. This petition was sort of the white flag in the story. Shamefully, once again the king refused the petition and in return sent even more troops to America.

Lexington and Concord

In 1775, there was a great change. General Thomas Gage had been named governor of Massachusetts. So John Hancock together with Samuel Adams and other colonial leaders convened at a Provincial Congress deciding to govern Massachusetts without Gage.

This Provincial Congress also began a stock pile of arms and amunitions.





All this lead to battle.



In April of the same year there was war in Lexington and Concord. Gage provoked this battle by sending troops to arrest Adams and Hancock. After they captured them, they were to go to Concord and seize the stockpile.



Luckily the colonists were tipped off about this by Paul Revere, who was sent to Lexington to warn Adams and Hancock. When he got to the town he excliamed the famous quote: "The British are coming, the British are coming." As soon as this warnig came, the local militia run got ready to run off the British troops.

When the troops marched into town, about 70 militia were gathered at Lexington Green, but the British ordered them to disperse. While the militia was dispersing, someone fired a shot, which provoked even more shots to come. When the shooting stopped eight militia men were dead.



So now the red coats (British troops) continued to Concord. They collected the stockpile and then headed back to Boston. On their way back they found trouble. Hundreds of minutemen (colonial militia) had lined up the road hiding behind trees and rocks. So when the red coats passed by, they were supprised attacked by the militia. Benefited from this attack, at the end they had killed 200 red coats.

1st Continental Congress

All the colonies protested against the Intolerable Acts.

In Fall of 1774, delegates of all the colonies, except Georgia's, got together in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. What was this meeting for? Well, this was the First Continental Congress.

Included in Virginia's delegate was Patrick Henry. He was one of the most outstanding characters in this reunion, remembered by his speech. In this great speech he proclaimed, "The distinction between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders was no more. I am not Virginian, but American."

They created a boycott to go against these so called "Coercive Acts", and established committees to enforce this boycott. They also estableshed a government that bypassed the British Parliament and the crown. Since they involved common people in these committees, their political activity grew bigger.

After the Congress, in Spring of 1775, all the arriving immigrants marveled the people saying, "They are all Liberty Mad."

The Intolerable Acts

The Coercive Acts a.k.a The Inrolerable Acts.

All these Boston riots angered the Parliament and the British crown. So to punish them, they passed out the Coercives Acts and to inforce them they sent warships and even more troops.
These were four laws designed to punish Massachusetts and to bring British control over all the colonies.

The Boston Port Act
The Boston Harbor would be closed to all ships until the colonists paid the East India Tea Company for all the tea was destroyed.

Administration of Justice Act
If a British official was accused of a crime in the colonies, he would be sent back to England to face charges there, instead of being tried in the colonies.

Massachusettes Government Act
The colony of Massachusetts was no longer allowed to make its own laws.


Quartering Act
The colonists had to allow British soldiers to live in their homes. They were to be given any access to any building. They could take it over and use it, so colonists had to leave.

Quebec Act
Parliament allowed the colonists to expand the boundries of their holdings farther into Canada.

These acts would last a long time. The harbor closing would keep the fishermen from making a living. There would be no importing, no exporting.
The people of Massachusetts were proud of the self-government they had created, but now they had to put up with the British telling them what to do.
Also sending a British official back to England for trial, was kind of a privilage for the official.
All these act were not to be tolerated by the colonists.

Through the system that the Committe of Correspondance had created, the other colonies soon found out what Massachusttes were going through. So the other colonies gathered supplies and money which were sent to the people in Massachusetts. It's because of this help that Massachusetts was able to survive and defy the British. They still refused to pay back for the lost tea. This lead to the start of a union between the colonies.

The Boston Tea Party

After creating a tea boycott, to but only smuggled tea and not British tea, things went bad. Well bad for the British anyway. It was making the worse for the financial state of the Britsh East India Company. So Parliament allowed the company to sell the tea directly to the colonies. This would make it much cheaper than the smuggled tea.
The colonists said that this wasn't right. They protested that Parliament was only trying to trick them into buying their tea and paying their taxes. So they continued buying the smuggled tea.

The night of December 16th, 1773, some patriots dressed up as indians and boarded the three ships that contained the British tea and they dumped the tea into the harbor.
This event was later on calles The Boston Tea Party.

The Boston Massacre

On March 5th, 1770, a group of colonists started throwing snowball and rocks to some British soldiers who were guarding the Boston custum houses. The soldiers were had been ordered not to fire at the colonists, but out of nervousness and self-defense they started to fire at the colonists. That night 5 colonists were killed. Amoung them was Crispus Attucks, who was believed to have been a run away slave working as a soldier.

Patrick Henry

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death

- Patrick Henry

Henry was born May 29, 1736, in Hanover County, Virginia. His early marriage to Sarah Shelton made him at 35 the father of six children. Henry began his career as a storekeeper and tobacco farmer, but in 1760 he began practicing law. He gained attention throughout the colonies for opposing King George III and the Stamp Act in a speech. He introduced seven resolutions against the Stamp Act. In one speech opposing the act, he stated, "If this be treason, make the most of it." Henry's efforts led the Virginia House of Burgesses to pass five of the seven resolutions he introduced. All seven resolutions were reprinted in newspapers as the Virginia Resolves. Henry grew more radical after the repeal of the act, arguing that the colonies should break away from Great Britain. In 1773, he joined with Thomas Jefferson and Richard Henry Lee to form the Committee of Correspondence to transmit messages throughout the colonies. When the House of Burgesses was dissolved in 1774, he became a member of the Virginia Provincial Convention, which advocated revolution.

During 1774 and 1775, Henry attended the First Continental Congress as a member of the Virginia delegation, advocating military mobilization. When the Second Continental Congress convened in 1775, he helped draft the legislation that organized the Continental Army. In 1776 he also helped draft the Virginia Constitution.

On 23 March 1775, Henry gave a great speech before Virginia's legislature, urging his fellow men to arm themselves in anticipation of hostilities with the British.


Patrick Henry was a leading statesman and orator at the time of the American Revolutionary War. Several of Henry's speeches have remained vivid documents of the revolutionary period, with "Give me liberty or give me death" his most remembered statement.

John Adams Before The Revolution

I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.

- John Adams

Born October 30, 1735 in Massachusetts to John Adams, Sr. and Susanna Boylston Adams. His father was a farmer, a Puritan, a lieutenant in the military and town councilman, who supervised schools and roads. As a young boy Adams always felt the responsability to hold up to his family heritage: the founding generation of Puritans, who came and established colonial presence in America.

As a young adult he attended Harvard College. His father having hopes that he would become a minister, but John wasn't sure yet of what he wanted to be. After he graduated, he started teaching in Worcester giving him some time think about his careeer choice. He finally decided he wanted to be a lawyer and studied law in the office of James Putnam. Later on after becoming a prominent lawyer, he married his third cousin Abigail Smith whom with he had six children: Abigail, future president John Quincy, Susanna, Charles, Thomas, and Elizabeth.


Working Against the Stamp Act
Adams first rose to prominence as an opponent of the Stamp Act of 1765, which was imposed by the British parliament without consulting the American assemblies.
Adams drafted instuctions sent to the Massachusetts legisture. This served as model to other colonies to draw up instructionsn to their own representatives.
In September 1765, Adams delivered a speech before the govenor and council in which he claimed that the Stamp Act was invalid in Massachusetts' grounds, because they had no representation in the British Parliament.


Adams in the Boston Massacre
In 1770, a small confrontation between British soldier and inocent civilians resulted in the killing of five of those civilians. These killings later were known as The Boston Massacre. The involved soldiers were arrested for criminal charges and had a hard time finding legal counsil. So they decided to ask John Adams to defend them. Although he feared for his reputation, he accepted. Six soldiers were kind of safed while two of the ones whos fired directly at the crowd were charged with murder and convicted of manslaughter.
In the end all Adams got paid was 10 guineas by Captain Thomas Preston.

Against Parliament Authority
In 1772, Massachusetts Govenor Yhomas Hutchinson proclaimed that he and all his judges would no longer be paid by the Massachusetts legisture, becuase the Crown would pay them from the costums revenues.
The people of Boston protested and asked Adams to speak in their behalf. He argued that the colonists had never been under the sovereignty of Parliament. That since the beginning their allegiance was only to the king.
Adams said that "if a workable line could not be drawn between parliamentary sovereignty and the total independence of the colonies, he continued, the colonies would have no other choice but to choose independence."

Taxes and Rebellions

The government exists for the goood of the people.

- John Loke

The colonists protested about the Stamp Act, that would soon start in November 1765. They said it threatend their wealth. At the time, the colonial leaders questioned if parliament had the right to tax them directly. They argued that since they had no representation in parliament, then they couldn't make those decisions. Colonists started to believe that it they accepted these taxes that more, would start coming in.

Many colonists believed that ths Stamp Act revealed a conspiracy in the british officials to destroy American liberties. All these colonial arguements puzzled the members of parliament because the British payed taxes, most couldn't vote and they never complained. It was said that Parliament claimed to represent all British citizens and said that the colonists were selfish and narrow minded.

Now when the protest and tax resistance started, it was done in three major ways:

~ Intellectual Protests
~ Economic Boycotts
~ Violent Intimidation
The colonial leaders wrote pamphlets, drafted resolutions, gave speeches, a delivered sermons to defy the British. All this started to astonish John Adams, who was a mass lawyer.

New Ideas
The colnial protestors brought on ideas from enlightment thinkers such as:
~ Baron of Montesquieu (French)
~ John Loke (British)

They started to think like them. They said that they should be under the three universal human rights: life, liberty, and property. They started to realize that a good governor would protect them.

Patick Henry, a young Virginian representative, used these ideas of the enlightment to draft a document named "Virginia Resolves". He argued that only the colnial assemblies had the right to tax the colonists, since they were their authority.

On May 30, 1765 the Virginia House Of Burgesses accepted most of Henry's revolves, but regected two of them because they thought they were to radical. Soon after all colonial newspapers started printing all six resolves, thinking they were all accepted. Later on eight other colonies these or similar resolves.