The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence

After the Olive Branch Petition, when King George III sent 30,000 German Hessian troops to fight with the British, a man named Richard Henry of Virginia presented a resolution that said that the colonials where free and that they had their own independent states. Congress responded by drafting a Declaration of Independence with the help of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. The resolution was passed, and the United States of America was born... provided the colonists won the war.

We now celebrate July 4th as Independence day.

Some Cool Facts:

Jefferson was quite unhappy about some of the edits made to his original draft of the Declaration of Independence. He had originally included language condemning the British promotion of the slave trade (even though Jefferson himself was a slave owner). This criticism of the slave trade was removed in spite of Jefferson’s objections.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the vote to approve the Declaration of Independence.

Once the Declaration of Independence had been written and signed, printer John Dunlap was asked to make about 200 copies to be distributed throughout the colonies. Today, the “Dunlap Broadsides” are extremely rare and valuable. In 1989, someone discovered a previously unknown Dunlap Broadside. It was sold for over $8 million in 2000. There are only 26 known surviving Dunlap Broadsides today.