The Declaration of Independence

1. The Declaration of Independence

2. Lee Resolution presented the Continental Congress on June 7, 1776

3. Text of Lee Resolution: Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

4. Life in 1776 • Speed of travel was three miles per hour • No paved roads • No electric lights—after dark homes were lit by candlelight & oil lamps. • Homes were warmed by fireplaces • No refrigerators • Music had never been recorded • There was no television, no film, no photographs

5. Jane Austen was a one-year-old baby • Thirty-three years before Abraham Lincoln would be born • 153 years before Martin Luther King Jr. would be born • 539,000 slaves in the British colonies • Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations • Mozart was 21 years old • Beethoven was six years old

6. There was no democracy anywhere in the world • England and France were ruled by kings • Catherine the Great was Czarina of Russia • China was ruled by an emperor • Japan was ruled by a shogun • In Europe kings were said to rule by divine right • San Francisco was founded by Spain • North America was the territory of France, Spain, and England • Washington, D.C. was a nameless swamp • Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense

7. The original was engrossed on parchment (an animal skin specially treated with lime and stretched to create a strong, long-lasting writing support). • There are 25 copies known to exist • “Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776” appears on the back of the document.

8. “. . . We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

9. Approved by Congress on July 2, 1776. Signed by 12 colonies on July 4, 1776 New York signed it on July 9, 1776

10. Signers of the Declaration Massachusetts John Hancock John Adams Samuel Adams Elbridge Gerry Robert Treat Paine  Pennsylvania George Clymer Benjamin Franklin Robert Morris John Morton James Wilson George Taylor James Smith Benjamin Rush George Ross Virginia Carter Braxton Benjamin Harrison Thomas Jefferson Francis (Lightfoot) Lee Richard Henry Lee Thomas Nelson, Jr. George Wythe Maryland Charles Carroll Samuel Chase William Paca Thomas Stone  North Carolina Joseph Hewes William Hooper John Penn New Jersey Abraham Clark John Hart Francis Hopkinson Richard Stockton John Witherspoon  Rhode Island William Ellery StephenHopkins  New York William Floyd Francis Lewis Philip Livingston Lewis Morris  Georgia Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton  South Carolina Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton Edward Rutledge Connecticut Samuel Huntington Roger Sherman William Williams Oliver Wolcott Delaware Thomas McKean George Read Caesar Rodney New Hampshire Josiah Bartlett Matthew Thornton William Whipple

11. In your journal : Was signing the Declaration of Independence a heroic act? Why or why not?

12. “The history of the world is but the biography of heroes.” –Thomas Carlyle It is said that the signers of the Declaration of Independence were heroes because they put their lives on the line to form a new country. With the above in mind, how can heroism influence the course of history? Be specific and site examples