


Main Author: Thomas Jefferson
Written in Philadelphia at Independence Hall
Accepted July 4, 1776

Although Thomas
Jefferson was the
main author, here is
Benjamin Franklin
editing a draft by
Jefferson.

1. “When in the course of human events, it
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected
them with another…”

“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.”
◦ Social Contract
◦ All men really equal?
◦ Unalienable: cannot be taken away

A huge list of all the wrongs King George III
has done to the colonies.
◦ “He has…...”
◦ This is the longest part of the Declaration


“These united colonies are, and of right,
ought to be free and independent states.”
The Declaration was written to tell the WORLD
the colonies are now free




56 Men signed the Declaration
People were scared to sign it because it
was a “Traitors List”
They would be hunted down by the British
Benjamin Franklin’s quote: “We must all
hang together, or assuredly we shall all
hang separately.”

John Hancock
stepped up and was
the first to sign his
name and said
“There now the king
can read my name
without his
spectacles”


Before the Declaration, colonists were
fighting for their rights, such as gaining a
representative in Parliament.
After the Declaration, colonists were fighting
for their independence.