United States Declaration of Independence

As soon as the conflict broke out, the Patriots overturned the existing governments in the thirteen colonies, shut down courts, and expelled British officials. In each state, new constitutions were drafted to replace royal charters, and it was stated that they were states, not colonies. Nine Provincial Congresses were ready for independence by June 1776, and the other four were not far behind. The Second Continental Congress overwhelmingly adopted the Declaration of Independenceon July 4, 1776, at a meeting at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

It stated why the Thirteen Colonies at war with Britain saw themselves as thirteen independent sovereign entities, no longer under British dominion. One of the most important papers in history is the United States Declaration of Independence. Its second statement, in particular, has been dubbed "one of the best-known sentences in the English language" and is frequently used about human rights. The Declaration of Independence influenced numerous other countries' declarations of independence, most notably the French Declaration of Man and Citizen Rights (1789).

The United States Declaration of Independence was mostly written by Jefferson, who had already demonstrated his ability as a political philosopher and polemicist in his 1774 book. A Summary View of the Rights of British America. He wrote the initial draft at the request of his fellow committee members. The members of the committee made a few minor revisions, as well as expanded the list of complaints leveled against the monarch. A criticism of the British people, a reference to "Scotch & foreign mercenaries" (there were Scots in the Congress), and a denunciation of the African slave trade were all deleted by the Congress (this being offensive to some Southern and New England delegates). The declaration was signed by 56 Founding Fathers from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, as well as congressional representatives from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations. The Declaration of Independence became one of the most extensively disseminated and reproduced texts in American history.

Date: July 4, 1776