Definition
On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved that the colonies were, and ought to be, free and independent states, and a committee of five chose Thomas Jefferson to draft a declaration. Congress voted for independence on July 2, then edited Jefferson's draft and adopted it on July 4, and most delegates signed a copy on August 2. The Declaration had three parts: a preamble on natural rights and the consent of the governed, a list of grievances against the king, and a declaration of independence. Congress cut Jefferson's passage blaming the king for the Atlantic slave trade.
Why it matters on the AP exam
The Declaration turned a quarrel over British policy into a claim about the rights of all people, and its ideals shaped how later Americans understood the nation's founding. Its grievances trace back to British measures after 1763, such as taxes without consent, troops in peacetime, and limits on western land, and declaring independence let the United States seek foreign alliances as a nation. Questions ask students to identify the Enlightenment ideas in the preamble, to match grievances to earlier events, and to explain its limits: "all men are created equal" freed no enslaved people, yet Black petitioners in Massachusetts in 1777 and women at Seneca Falls in 1848 used its words to claim their rights. A common error says it set up the government of the United States, when the Articles of Confederation, in force from 1781, were the first national plan.
In the sources
“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.”
Connections
- Common Sense: Paine made the popular case for independence six months before the Declaration
- John Locke: Jefferson drew on his ideas of natural rights and consent
- Natural rights: the preamble names life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
- Olive Branch Petition: Congress had pledged loyalty to the king in this petition a year earlier
Study it in context
Topic 3.4: Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution Watch this part