Declaring Independence

• Thomas Paine: wrote Common Sense a pamphlet arguing that citizens, not kings or queens, should make the laws

  • Spread throughout the colonies giving people a new view on the monarchy​

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Paine's Common Sense

• June 1776 the Second Continental Congress formed a committee to write a document declaring the colonies independence

• The Declaration of Independence: formally announces the colonies' break from Britain

  • Jefferson: unalieanable rights, "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness"

  • George III violated rights by taxing the colonists without consent and passing unfair laws

  • Right to break from Britain​​

​July 4, 1776, Continential Congress Approved

Independence is Declared

• Loyalists: colonists who chose to side with Britain

• Patriots: Chose to fight for independence

• Neutral

• Ended friendhips and divided families

• Many loyalists moved to Canada​ leaving their homes and property

• Natives tried to stay neutral, until they divided ​

Choosing Sides

​Unfinished Business

• Although the Declaration of Independence declared "all men are created equal" it failed to mention women, African Americans and Native Americans whose rights were subject to majority rule

• Women: Abigail Adams tried to influence her husband to include rights of women in the document however delegates did not agree

• Enslaved Africans: Why did slavery exist in a land that vlaued personal freedom? Slavery continued in the colonies. By the 1780'd New England took steps to abolish slavery although it continued long after the Revolution

• Native Americans: despite the Proclamation of 1763, colonists were settling past the Appalachian mountains​. This disregard for Native Amereicans would develop into a pattern.

Subject | Subject

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