1. Warm up Matching: Vocab Quiz Friday!
the last ditch effort of American colonists to make peace with the British
Agreement where France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there
Rights that can never be taken away
an act of the British Parliament for raising revenue in the American Colonies by requiring the use of stamps and stamped paper for official documents
Military that is raised from the civil population
A proposal to create a unified govt for the 13 Colonies
a series of laws passed by the British Parliament after the Boston Tea party
forbade all settlers from settling past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains
European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism
shadow govts organized by the Patriot leaders of the colonies on the eve of the American Revolution
Unalienable Rights
Militia
Treaty of Paris 1763
Albany Plan of Union
Olive Branch Petition
Stamp Act
Enlightenment
Intolerable Acts
Proclamation of 1763
Committees of Correspondence

2. Historical Context Thomas Jefferson About The Author
Born in Virginia.
Served in the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Unanimously chosen by the Committee of Five to prepare a draft of the Declaration alone.
Ben Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston
Attended The College of William & Mary.
Eloquent correspondent, but not good public speaker

3. Major Events of The Time
Common Sense is published
N.C. produces the Halifax Resolves, making it the first British colony to officially authorize its delegates to vote for independence.
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposes a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence.
Virginia Declaration of Rights by George Mason is adopted by the Virginia Convention of Delegates.
The Delaware General Assembly votes to suspend govt under the British Crown

4. Intended Audience
The audience was those wanting independence from England.
International audience

5. Jefferson’s Viewpoint on the Major Issues of His Time
He believed in the separation of church and state.
He believed that the colonies had the right to overthrow a tyrannical government.

6. Structure Introduction
Preamble Outlines a general philosophy of government that justifies revolution when government harms natural rights

7. Structure Indictment Denunciation
A bill of particulars documenting the king's "repeated injuries and usurpations" of the Americans' rights and liberties
Denunciation
Finishes the case for independence; states that compromise with the crown has failed

8. Structure Conclusion/Signatures
Signers assert that there are conditions where people must change their govt, the British have produced such conditions and, by necessity, the colonies must become independent

9. Main Points All men are created equal.
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Men are given by God certain unalienable rights.
“They are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
We have the natural right by God to declare our independence from England.
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…

10. Main Points
Govts derive their authority from the consent of the people.
“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
When a govt abuses its power, the people have the right to overthrow it.
“That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…
The colonies tried repeatedly to compromise with King George, but has been a tyrant.
“Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

11. Historical Significance
Historical Significance
Colonies finally declared independence from England
1ST step in the creation of a new nation.
Declaration also inspired many other similar documents in other countries
Latin American nations, Belgium, New Zealand

12. Interpretation #1
The Declaration of Independence represents the colonists’ deepest fears and beliefs. The colonists believed they saw a clear pattern in the events that followed They believed they saw an evil and deliberate conspiracy to crush liberty in America. They saw evidence of this conspiracy in the Stamp Act and in the Coercive Acts.
They also believed that America was destined to play a special role in history. They believed that America would become “the foundation of a great and mighty empire, the largest the world ever saw to be founded on such principles of liberty and freedom, both civil and religious.” The colonists believed that England was trying to enslave them, and that they should use “all the power which God has given them” to protect themselves.

13. Interpretation #2
It seemed clear to the educated, upper-class colonists that something needed to be done to persuade the lower class to join the revolutionary cause, to direct their anger against England. The solution was to find language inspiring to all classes, specific enough in its listing of grievances to fill people with anger against the British, vague enough to avoid class conflict, and stirring enough to build patriotic feelings.
Everything the Declaration of Independence was about – popular control over governments, the right of rebellion and revolution, fury at political tyranny, economic burdens, and military attacks – was well suited to unite large numbers of colonists and persuade even those who had grievances against one another to turn against England. Some Americans were clearly omitted from those united by the Declaration of Independence: Indians, black slaves, and women.