1. Declaring Independence
Section 2

2. Paine’s Common Sense
In January 1776 a 47-page pamphlet titled Common Sense by Thomas Paine was published anonymously and distributed in Philadelphia.
He argued that citizens, not kings and queens, should make laws.
Changed the way many people viewed their king.

3. Independence Declared
2nd Continental Congress formed a committee to write a document declaring independence and created a seal with the Latin motto “E pluribus unum” or “out of many, one” to recognize the new union of states.
Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence, the formal announcement of the colonies’ break from Great Britain.
Three Main Points of Decl. of Ind.:
All people possess unalienable rights
King George III had violated the colonists’ rights by taxing them without their consent.
The colonies had the right to break from Britain
Thomas Jefferson

4. Choosing Sides
Colonists who supported Great Britain, were called Loyalists (often time called Tories)
Historians estimate that 40-45% Americans were Patriots, % were Loyalists and the rest were neutral.
More than 50,000 Loyalists fled the colonies due to persecution; most went to Canada.
Families and friendships were torn apart
Both sides encouraged Native Americans to remain neutral at first; by summer 1776 both sides aggressively recruited them.
4 of the 6 Iroquois nations fought with the British; the Oneida and Tuscarora helped the Patriots

5. Benjamin Franklin vs. William Franklin
“I am indeed of the opinion, that the parliament has no right make any law whatever, binding on the colonies… I know your sentiments differ from mine on these subjects. You are a thorough government man, which I do not wonder at, nor do I aim at converting you. I only wish you to act uprightly and steadily.”
“I think that all laws until they are repealed out to be obeyed and that it is the duty of those who are entrusted with the executive part of government to see that they are so.”

6. Unfinished Business: Women
The Declaration of Independence left out a lot of groups; the rights of these groups would be subject to the rule of the majority.
There were many women who were Patriots, but their rights weren’t addressed.
Abigail Adams tried to convince her husband John Adams to include women’s rights.
“As to your extraordinary Code of Laws, I cannot but laugh. We have been told that our Struggle has loosened the bands of Government every where. That Children and Apprentices were disobedient-that schools and Colledges were grown turbulent -that Indians slighted their Guardians and Negroes grew insolent to their Masters. But your Letter was the first Intimation that another Tribe more numerous and powerfull than all the rest were grown discontented. This is rather too coarse a Compliment but you are so saucy, I wont blot it out.”
“Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do no put such unlimited power in the hands of the Husbands… If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are and will not hold ourselves bound by Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”

7. Unfinished Business: Africans
The Declaration did not recognize the rights of enslaved Africans. The authors compared life under British rule to living as enslaved people.
Many slaves begin to have hope that they would be free after hearing white people talk about freedom.
Some petitioned for their freedom because of the language they heard from the Declaration of Independence.
By the 1780s, New England colonies were taking steps to end slavery.
**Another case was the Quock Walker vs. Jennison made clear to the people of MA that the MA Constitution did not give out empty promises when it stated that “all men are born equal and free”
**Elizabeth Freeman (aka) Mum Bett heard ‘all men are born free and equal’ at her master’s house, John Ashley. She sought the counsel of Thomas Sedgwick. She and another man named Brom sued for their freedom in Brom and Bett vs. Ashley in She was the first African-American woman to successfully gain her freedom under the MA Constitution.
Mum Bett age ca. 65

8. "I heard that paper read yesterday, that says, all men are created equal, and that every man has a right to freedom. I'm not a dumb critter; won't the law give me my freedom?”
-Mum Bett
According the account of Catherine Sedgwick, daughter Theodore Sedgwick, Mum Bett’s attorney

9. Unfinished Business: Native Americans
The Declaration of Independence did not address the right of Native Americans to life, liberty or property.
Jefferson describes Native Americans as “merciless Indian savages” pawns of King George III that attack American colonists.