1. TOUGH DECISION FOR THE COLONISTS!!
The Great Declaration
1776
Arguing with Britain has gone on for 10 years now
Fighting has gone on for a year
Are the colonists ready to strike out on a path of independence?
Colonies breaking away from their mother country… Never been done before!
Become independent from Great Britain…
Giving up a place within the greatest empire in the world
Giving up all the advantages of being part of the empire
OR… do nothing to defend rights and liberties…?
TOUGH DECISION FOR THE COLONISTS!!

2. Coming to a Decision
29-year-old English immigrant, Thomas Paine, wrote a pamphlet entitled Common Sense
Great and rare skill: write about important ideas in the every day language of the farmer, the worker, and townspeople
Half the colonists read it and then talked about it
What Paine wrote was plain, common sense
Wrote about what he thought, but also asked his reader what they thought…
Does it make sense for a huge continent like America to be ruled by a small island 3,000 miles away?
Does it makes sense for a people to be ruled by one man, just because he was born into a certain family?
Wouldn’t it be better to choose our rulers, rather than to have one chosen for us?
Especially when that ruler might be all wrong for the job, but was made ruler anyways because of his family name?!

3. Coming to a Decision Cont’d
Americans should stop fooling themselves- the monarchy/government headed by a king would never bring fair rule to a people (especially to people living 3,000 miles away)!
Never has happened, never will
Reducing the world to blood and ashes
Americans should abandon that form of government once and for all
The more Americans thought about it, the more they agreed with Paine

4. The Declaration of Independence
June 1776: Second Continental Congress took up the question of independence
The time had come to separate
Chose a committee to write a declaration (statement)
Explain to the world why the colonies were breaking away from Britain
Authors: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was chosen to do the writing
Became the most important document in American history
The document pointed out all of the things the king had done wrong and how they had broken the colonists’ rights
“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 [rights] are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. [To] secure these rights, governments are instituted (created)…”

5. The Declaration of Independence
But… what if a government doesn’t protect these rights and then takes them away?
People have the right to create a new government for themselves
July 4, 1776: Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence
On that day, all 13 colonies became independent states
Crowds gathered in the towns to listen to the Declaration of Independence read aloud
Church bells rang out
Soldiers fired cannons and shot off guns
Citizens lit bonfires and lifted liberty poles in celebration

6. The Declaration of Independence
Back in Philadelphia…
The mood was still very serious!
56 men signed the Declaration of Independence
If the document failed, the king would probably put all 56 men to death!!
Benjamin Franklin stated, “Gentlemen, we must all hang together… Or else we shall all hang separately.”