What Did the Declaration of Independence Actually Declare?

​Preamble

​Close Reading: What are the three unalienable rights, or rights that can’t be taken away or denied, listed in lines 12 and 13 of the preamble of the Declaration of Independence?

Analysis: The writers of the Declaration of Independence wrote that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” [lines 14 - 16]. What does this mean in terms of how governments get power?

​Preamble

Close Reading: Jefferson writes that “whenever any form of government becomes destructive…it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.”What does this tell us about how the colonists viewed the purpose of government? [lines 16 - 18]? 

​Grievances

1. Analysis: Which grievance do you think had the biggest impact on the colonists’ decision to rebel — taxation without consent, unfair trials, or standing armies?
   
   He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.” How does this grievance show the colonists’ fear of tyranny?

Denunciation

Close Reading: According to lines 1 - 13, what have colonists done before this Declaration of Independence to address their concerns?  How did Great Britain respond? 

Close Reading: According to lines 15 - 28, When Jefferson writes that the colonies now “absolve all allegiance to the British Crown,” what new identity are the colonists creating for themselves?

Denunciation

Close Reading: Does the Declaration of Independence formally declare war on England, or does it do something else? Why is this distinction important?