The indictment section that follows includes a long list of specific ways that King George was seen as not treating the colonists fairly. The preamble, which includes the famous statement that “we hold that these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” established the idea that colonists felt that Great Britain directly violated what they saw as their natural rights. This political approach justifies the decision the colonists made to declare sovereignty from colonial rule. The introduction includes the strongest statement of Social Contract Theory by arguing that people have the right to rebel against governments that no longer adequately represent their interests. The Declaration of Independence consists of five main parts: introduction, preamble, indictments, denunciations, and conclusion. The Declaration of Independence was their statement of grievances and their explanation as to why they no longer considered themselves under British rule.
SUMMARIZE THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE SERIES
When Great Britain attempted to impose a series of taxes on the colonies to recoup expenses paid during the course of the French and Indian War, the colonists protested that the British government no longer had their consent to rule the colonies. The authors of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, all were well versed in Enlightenment philosophy.įrom the point of view of the colonies, Great Britain did not have the consent of the colonists because they were not represented in Parliament. Many colonists were strongly influenced by Enlightenment political theories about social contracts, which argued that a government could only rule if it had the consent of the governed. The Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, almost a year after Great Britain and members of the thirteen colonies first began an armed conflict over the right of the British government to rule the territories.
SUMMARY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE John Trumbull’s 1819 artistic rendering of the Declaration of Independence being presented to Congress. The Declaration of Independence established the thirteen colonies as sovereign states that were officially at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain. The United States Declaration of Independence was the official statement by the thirteen colonies in which they explained why they no longer considered themselves subject to British rule.
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