Research on American History with Emphasis on the Declaration of Independence, The US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
My research was inspired by Charlie Kirk, may God rest his soul.
A New World
The first permanent English settlers had waded ashore at Jamestown and Plymouth in the early 1600s. By 1770, thirteen English speaking colonies were established, including about 500,000 of African descent at a tavern in Philadelphia. A visitor from Scotland found himself in very mixed company... 'They were Scots, English, Dutch, Germans, and Irish, and of many different religions. The different religions were not always tolerant of one another. Quakers were not welcome in most of New England. Catholics were only tolerated in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and yet freedom of worship was a key feature of colonial life. Many immigrants have come to the New World to escape religious persecution. Many others, lured by the promise of cheap land and the dream of prosperity came in search of a better life. And often, their hopes were realized.
Ireland was mired in poverty as witnessed by Benjamin Franklin when he visited Ireland in 1771. Irish immigrants who were too poor to pay for their voyage across the Atlantic came over as indentured servants. An indentured servant might be treated like a slave-but there was a big difference between the two. The servant had some legal rights and a limit to his term of service. The captured Africans who were shipped to America in chains and sold as slaves had no rights and no limit to their terms of service.
For white settlers, life in the colonies was a lot freer that it had been back home. America had its upper and lower classes, its rich and poor, but the class barriesrs that separated privileged aristocrats from lowly peasants in Europe seemed much less important in the New World. In America, there was no titled nobility. The typical farmer owned rather than rented his land. A skilled artisan could become a prosperous and influential citizen. Immigrants in America were judged more by what they could do than by who their parents were.
The colonists also enjoyed a high degree of self-government. As British subjects, they owed their allegiance to the king, who granted colonies charters and appointed colonial governors. England regulated the colonies' overseas trade and provided for their defense. beyond that, the colonists ran their own affairs. They had their own legislatures, assemblies, where their elected representatives passed laws and levied taxes. At town meetings, according to one observer, 'Each individual has an equal liberty of delivering his opinion and is not liable to be silenced or browbeated by a richer or greater townsman than himself; each vote weighs equally whether that of the highest or lowest inhabitant.” Though women were not allowed to vote, they largely supervised plantations, ran farms, shops, and inns; engaged in many trades; raised huge families, and expressed their views freely. Despite fighting in the Revolutionary War, they would not win the right to vote in America until 1920.
Visitors from Europe often commented on the independent spirit they found in the colonies. Americans were used to thinking of themselves. That is not surprising for a people who had braved a dangerous ocean voyage, blazed trails, cleared the land, built towns, and made most of their own laws. Having done all that, they meant to stand up for their rights.
Events that lead to the Declaration of Independence.
Proclamation of 1763
The French and Indian War
Ever since the French and Indian War which started in 1754, France and England, with their respective Indian allies, had fought for years to decide who would rule North America. The Iroquois of New York, a confederacy of six Indian nations, had sided with England. Most of the other Indians in the East had allied themselves with France. The war ended in 1763 with a British victory and France was driven out of North America, but England was left with a gigantic war debt. The government had to raise money to pay the debt and to support the thousands of British troops who had been sent to patrol America’s wilderness frontier. King George and his ministers decide that the colonists should help pay some of these costs. It said that colonists couldn’t settle west of the Appalachian Mountains and couldn’t buy Native American land without the approval of the British government. So some of the taxes passed by the British parliament were intended to cover some of the costs for this expensive undertaking. And that is when the troubles started.
The Currency Act and Sugar Act 1764
After the French and Indian War, Parliament began passing more taxes on the colonies. The Sugar Act doubled the tax on imported molasses, which was an important sweetener in the colonies.
The Quartering Act and Stamp Act 1765
The Stamp Act, passed in 1765, finally brought matters to a head. The colonists would now have to buy British tax stamps to paste on all printed material issued in America- a stamp for each page of a newspaper or pamphlet; for every will, contract, marriage license, and diploma-even playing cards, calendars, and advertisements. Like the ‘cedula’ imposed by the Spaniards on its Philippine colony in the 1880s.
The British Parliament had just imposed an unpopular new tax on Americans. It was called the Stamp Tax and it provoked massive colonial opposition. Americans have fought faithfully in the French and Indian War, battling side by side with the British troops under British command. They had furnished their own money too, piling up war debts of their own. Another law called the Quartering Act ordered the colonists to provide barracks, food, and other supplies for the British troops stationed among them, and that caused more resentment.
Townshend Acts 1767
The Townshend Acts taxed glass, paint, paper, and tea. With each new tax, the colonists became angrier.
Boston Massacre 1770
Could Parliament impose any laws it wanted on the American colonies, even though the Americans had no voice in Parliament? Or was there a limit to Parliament’s authority?
The colonists were outraged. “Taxation without representation is tyranny!’ be came an angry cry heard everywhere.
An American cartoonist, considered as one of the ‘earliest memes’ expresses the colonists opposition to the Stamp Act. (This is the Place to affix the STAMP’)
John Adams had an older cousin named Samuel Adams, a shrewd political activist who had led the opposition of the Stamp Act. Samual Adams knew how to sway public opinion. He called the Customs House shootings ‘the Boston Massacre,’ and he had his good friend Paul Revere make a copper engraving that showed British soldiers mowing down 'peaceful' Bostonians. Revere’s portrayal of the shooting was not accurate, but it was printed by the thousands and circulated all over the colonies- a powerful piece of propaganda that would help pave the way toward a revolution.
The Night The Revolution Began, The Boston Tea Party 1773
The men, with as young as 15 years old were smearing their faces with coal dust and red paint and wrapping old blankets around their shoulders, disguising themselves as 'Mohawk Indians', carrying hatchets & clubs, they emerged from hiding and marched to Griffin's Wharf to where three British merchant ships were carrying 342 chests of fine blended tea, shipped from England by the East India Company. The tea chests were hoisted up from the holds, broken open and the tea dumped over the side into the moonlit waters of the Boston Harbor. Thought it was late in the evening when they began, they had discharged a whole cargo of three ships worth before dawn. Great care was taken that the protest be carried out with discipline., Nothing but the tea was disturbed, not the least insult offered to any person. After each ship had been emptied, the desk was sept clean. Everything left was put back in its p[roper state.
Intolerable Acts; First Continental Congress 1774
Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, which limited freedoms in the colonies. The acts closed Boston Harbor, required colonists to house British soldiers, limited town meetings, and appointed colonial leaders rather than allowing colonists to elect them. Colonists called this measure the Intolerable Acts because they felt they were being punished. Patrick Henry, a colonial leader from Virginia gave a dramatic speech at the First Continental Congress on what would be famously known as ‘Give me liberty, or give me death!’
Battles of Lexington and Concord 1775
A Famous Ride; Paul Revere and others rode through the night on horseback to warn the Massachusetts colonists that the British were coming to arrest them and seize their weapons. The first shots of the war for Independence were fired in the towns of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775.
Common Sense; Lee Resolution; The Declaration of Independence 1776
In early 1776, Thomas Paine published a pamphlet titled Common Sense. In it, he presented clear, easily understood arguments for independence. He did not identify himself as the author because of the radical ideas it contained, It convinced many who still had doubts about going to war with England that there was no turning back. Richerd Henry Lee was a political leader from Virginia . In 1776 , at the Secone Continental Congress, eh proposed a resolution for representatives to vote on. That the 13 colonies should band together and become free and independent from Britain Congress debated the Lee Resolution and appointed a committee to write an official proclamation of independence.
The congress appointed five men-Benhamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert Livingston-to write a statement of independence.
It seemed Jefferson tried to get ouf of the assignment. He wanted Adams to write the first draft. But Adams refused. Years later, Adams recalled the following conversation;
“You should do it,’ said Jefferson
“Oh, no!”
“Why will you not?”
“I will not.’
“Why?” pressed Jefferson.
“Reasons enough,’ said Adams.
“What can be your reasons?”
“Reason, first, you are a Virginian and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second I am obnoxious suspected and unpopular. You are very much otherwise Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can.’
Virginia's prominent role in the Revolutionary War stemmed from its position as the largest and most populous colony. It supplied crucial political, military, and financial resources, hosted significant battles, and produced influential figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. The state served as a major battleground, notably witnessing the decisive Siege of Yorktown, and its leaders were instrumental in drafting the Declaration of Independence. (researched thru google, paragraph revised by Toolbaz)
And so it was settled and Jefferson went to work. There were plenty of ideas for Jefferson to draw on. He was familiar with the writings of John Locke, an influential English philosopher who argued that people are born with certain natural rights and governments should be run for the benefit of everyone, not just their rulers. He also read Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the preamble was largely influenced by the “Virginia Declaration of Rights,” written by George Mason, a well-known patriot. He then showed his work to John Adams and Ben Franklin who suggested additional changes before the draft was submitted to Congress.
Congress then proposed changed after change and the most hotly contested change concerned a long passage Jefferson had written attacking the slave trade and blaming King George III for imposing slavery on America. Jefferson himself lived in a slave society. He owned more than two hundred slaves. His plantations and way of life depended on labors of human property he had inherited yet considered slavery an evil that should gradually be abolished. More than once, he had proposed plans to end the slave trade in Virginia. At that time in America, it was easier to denounce slavery than to put an end to it. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and other revolutionary leaders had spoken out strongly against slavery, but for the sake of unity, they agreed to compromise, so the anti-slavery passage was eliminated. Yet, he was snot exempt from the prejudices shared by so many of his fellow white colonists. Jefferson believed that African Americans could never take their place in American society. He suggested that they should be relocated elsewhere once they were freed, perhaps back to Africa- a view held by many others at that time and he remained a slave owner throughout his life. Recent evidence suggests that Jefferson may have fathered several children with his slave Sally Hemings, who lived for many years as a member of the Jefferson Household. And so the explosive question of slavery was put aside and would not be resolved until America’s Civil war nearly a century later.
On July 4, 1776, swarms of horseflies from a nearby stable invaded the assembly room, encouraging the delegates to bring their deliberations to a close The final version of the Declaration of Independence was voted and approved unanimously. That afternoon, the Declaration of Independence was signed by John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress. He made his signature large enough so that King George would be able to read it without his glasses.
MAIN PARTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
PART 1 PREAMBLE
States that all men have unalienable rights. The words “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.”
PART 2 LISTING THE COMPLAINTS
This lists the things the king and Parliament did that pushed the colonists to declare their independence. It names laws passed to punish colonists, taxes placed on them without their consent, and the attempt to ruin the colonies financially by cutting off their trade with the rest of the world. It also discusses why the colonists separated themselves for the British people, who they felt did not support them but allowed the king to treat the colonists unfairly.
PART 3 UNITED STATEMENT PROCLAIMING INDEPENDENCE
The words ‘United States of America; are boldly written in the document showing that the courageous signers had a united purpose.
The Declaration of Independence was sent to a Philadelphia printer, John Dunlap. He worked through the night to print the first copies. These copies are known as the Dunlap broadsides. The Dunlap broadsides were printed on large sheets of paper and were sent throughout the colonies to that they would be posted and read by the public. George Washington received a copy and read it to his troops. A copy was also sent to England. Its believed that originally about 200 Dunlap broadsides were printed. Today only about twenty-five remain. In 2000, two collectors paid over $8,000,000 for a Dunlap broadside.
Townshend Acts 1767
The Townshend Acts taxed glass, paint, paper, and tea. With each new tax, the colonists became angrier.
Boston Massacre 1770
Could Parliament impose any laws it wanted on the American colonies, even though the Americans had no voice in Parliament? Or was there a limit to Parliament’s authority?
The colonists were outraged. “Taxation without representation is tyranny!’ be came an angry cry heard everywhere.
An American cartoonist, considered as one of the ‘earliest memes’ expresses the colonists opposition to the Stamp Act. (This is the Place to affix the STAMP’)
That summer, a storm of protest swept through the colonies. Demonstrators organized by the Sons of Liberty threatened to seize and destroy the hated tax stamps and force the royal tax commissioners to give up their posts. This lead to the evening of March 5, 1770, the mounting tension exploded in the snow-covered streets of Boston. The riots escalated into what would be known as the Boston Massacre. Five Bostonians lay dead or dying on the frozen ground.
One of the victims was Crispus Attucks.
A former slave of black and American Indian ancestry. The eight solders who had fired their muskets were arrested and tried for murder in a Boston court. They were ironically defended by John Adams, a scrappy Massachusetts lawyer and a leading member of the Sons of Liberty. Adams hated the presence of British troops in Boston as much as anyone. But he believed that the soldiers had a right to protect themselves and were entitled to a fair trial, so he agreed to take their case-as an act of courage, since so many Bostonians were demanding that the soldiers be punished. During the trial, rocks were thrown through Adamn’s window and boys jeered him on the street. Adams argued in court that the soldiers had defended themselves against a lawless mob. When the jury delivered its verdict, six of the defendants were acquitted. The other two were convicted of manslaughter, a lesser offense than murder.
John Adams had an older cousin named Samuel Adams, a shrewd political activist who had led the opposition of the Stamp Act. Samual Adams knew how to sway public opinion. He called the Customs House shootings ‘the Boston Massacre,’ and he had his good friend Paul Revere make a copper engraving that showed British soldiers mowing down 'peaceful' Bostonians. Revere’s portrayal of the shooting was not accurate, but it was printed by the thousands and circulated all over the colonies- a powerful piece of propaganda that would help pave the way toward a revolution.
One of the earliest 'fake' news
This drawing of the Boston Massacre is by Henry Pelham, stepbrother of painter John Singleton Copley. Pelham published his design nearly two weeks after Paul Revere's.
The men, with as young as 15 years old were smearing their faces with coal dust and red paint and wrapping old blankets around their shoulders, disguising themselves as 'Mohawk Indians', carrying hatchets & clubs, they emerged from hiding and marched to Griffin's Wharf to where three British merchant ships were carrying 342 chests of fine blended tea, shipped from England by the East India Company. The tea chests were hoisted up from the holds, broken open and the tea dumped over the side into the moonlit waters of the Boston Harbor. Thought it was late in the evening when they began, they had discharged a whole cargo of three ships worth before dawn. Great care was taken that the protest be carried out with discipline., Nothing but the tea was disturbed, not the least insult offered to any person. After each ship had been emptied, the desk was sept clean. Everything left was put back in its p[roper state.
Intolerable Acts; First Continental Congress 1774
Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, which limited freedoms in the colonies. The acts closed Boston Harbor, required colonists to house British soldiers, limited town meetings, and appointed colonial leaders rather than allowing colonists to elect them. Colonists called this measure the Intolerable Acts because they felt they were being punished. Patrick Henry, a colonial leader from Virginia gave a dramatic speech at the First Continental Congress on what would be famously known as ‘Give me liberty, or give me death!’
Battles of Lexington and Concord 1775
A Famous Ride; Paul Revere and others rode through the night on horseback to warn the Massachusetts colonists that the British were coming to arrest them and seize their weapons. The first shots of the war for Independence were fired in the towns of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775.
Common Sense; Lee Resolution; The Declaration of Independence 1776
In early 1776, Thomas Paine published a pamphlet titled Common Sense. In it, he presented clear, easily understood arguments for independence. He did not identify himself as the author because of the radical ideas it contained, It convinced many who still had doubts about going to war with England that there was no turning back. Richerd Henry Lee was a political leader from Virginia . In 1776 , at the Secone Continental Congress, eh proposed a resolution for representatives to vote on. That the 13 colonies should band together and become free and independent from Britain Congress debated the Lee Resolution and appointed a committee to write an official proclamation of independence.
The congress appointed five men-Benhamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert Livingston-to write a statement of independence.
It seemed Jefferson tried to get ouf of the assignment. He wanted Adams to write the first draft. But Adams refused. Years later, Adams recalled the following conversation;
“You should do it,’ said Jefferson
“Oh, no!”
“Why will you not?”
“I will not.’
“Why?” pressed Jefferson.
“Reasons enough,’ said Adams.
“What can be your reasons?”
“Reason, first, you are a Virginian and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second I am obnoxious suspected and unpopular. You are very much otherwise Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can.’
Virginia's prominent role in the Revolutionary War stemmed from its position as the largest and most populous colony. It supplied crucial political, military, and financial resources, hosted significant battles, and produced influential figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. The state served as a major battleground, notably witnessing the decisive Siege of Yorktown, and its leaders were instrumental in drafting the Declaration of Independence. (researched thru google, paragraph revised by Toolbaz)
And so it was settled and Jefferson went to work. There were plenty of ideas for Jefferson to draw on. He was familiar with the writings of John Locke, an influential English philosopher who argued that people are born with certain natural rights and governments should be run for the benefit of everyone, not just their rulers. He also read Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the preamble was largely influenced by the “Virginia Declaration of Rights,” written by George Mason, a well-known patriot. He then showed his work to John Adams and Ben Franklin who suggested additional changes before the draft was submitted to Congress.
Congress then proposed changed after change and the most hotly contested change concerned a long passage Jefferson had written attacking the slave trade and blaming King George III for imposing slavery on America. Jefferson himself lived in a slave society. He owned more than two hundred slaves. His plantations and way of life depended on labors of human property he had inherited yet considered slavery an evil that should gradually be abolished. More than once, he had proposed plans to end the slave trade in Virginia. At that time in America, it was easier to denounce slavery than to put an end to it. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and other revolutionary leaders had spoken out strongly against slavery, but for the sake of unity, they agreed to compromise, so the anti-slavery passage was eliminated. Yet, he was snot exempt from the prejudices shared by so many of his fellow white colonists. Jefferson believed that African Americans could never take their place in American society. He suggested that they should be relocated elsewhere once they were freed, perhaps back to Africa- a view held by many others at that time and he remained a slave owner throughout his life. Recent evidence suggests that Jefferson may have fathered several children with his slave Sally Hemings, who lived for many years as a member of the Jefferson Household. And so the explosive question of slavery was put aside and would not be resolved until America’s Civil war nearly a century later.
On July 4, 1776, swarms of horseflies from a nearby stable invaded the assembly room, encouraging the delegates to bring their deliberations to a close The final version of the Declaration of Independence was voted and approved unanimously. That afternoon, the Declaration of Independence was signed by John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress. He made his signature large enough so that King George would be able to read it without his glasses.
MAIN PARTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
PART 1 PREAMBLE
States that all men have unalienable rights. The words “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.”
PART 2 LISTING THE COMPLAINTS
This lists the things the king and Parliament did that pushed the colonists to declare their independence. It names laws passed to punish colonists, taxes placed on them without their consent, and the attempt to ruin the colonies financially by cutting off their trade with the rest of the world. It also discusses why the colonists separated themselves for the British people, who they felt did not support them but allowed the king to treat the colonists unfairly.
PART 3 UNITED STATEMENT PROCLAIMING INDEPENDENCE
The words ‘United States of America; are boldly written in the document showing that the courageous signers had a united purpose.
The Declaration of Independence was sent to a Philadelphia printer, John Dunlap. He worked through the night to print the first copies. These copies are known as the Dunlap broadsides. The Dunlap broadsides were printed on large sheets of paper and were sent throughout the colonies to that they would be posted and read by the public. George Washington received a copy and read it to his troops. A copy was also sent to England. Its believed that originally about 200 Dunlap broadsides were printed. Today only about twenty-five remain. In 2000, two collectors paid over $8,000,000 for a Dunlap broadside.
References;
'Give Me Liberty!' The Story of the Declaration of Independence by Russell Freedman
The Declaration of Independence by Terence M. Stanton
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