The Declaration of Independence

Exhibit Table of Contents

Exhibit Home

Drafting the Declaration

Jefferson’s “original Rough draught”
The Committee’s Draft as Presented to the Continental Congress
The Final Declaration of Independence

Building Blocks

The Virginia Declaration of Rights
The Development of the Charges Against the Crown
Richard Henry Lee’s Resolution

Independence Timeline

March 5, 1770

Engrav'd Printed & Sold by Paul Revere Boston.The print was copied by Revere from a design by Henry Pelham for an engraving eventually published under the title "The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, or the Bloody Massacre," of which only two impressions could be located by Brigham. Revere's print appeared on or about March 28, 1770., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

During a confrontation between British soldiers and Boston civilians, soldiers fire into the crowd, ultimately killing five and wounding six individuals.

May 1773

The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, granting the East India Company a monopoly over tea sales in the colonies and asserting Parliament’s right to tax colonists.

December 16, 1773

Protestors in Boston throw 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor in what was later known as the “Boston Tea Party.”

March-June 1774

A newspaper cartoon depicts British officials holding

Parliament passes a series of punitive acts known as the “Intolerable Acts” or “Coercive Acts.”

July 1774

Thomas Jefferson drafts instructions for the Virginia delegates to the First Continental Congress (published as A Summary View of the Rights of British America).

September 5-October 26, 1774

The First Continental Congress is held in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia.

April 19, 1775

Woodcut by Amos Doolittle, 1775, detailing colonial militia attacks on the British regular troops as they retreated to Boston, showing red-coated men on a road surrounded by trees, with plumes of smoke coming up from parts of the countryside.

Colonial militias confront British Regulars in Massachusetts at the battles of Lexington and Concord, leading to colonial troops laying siege to British-occupied Boston.

May 10, 1775

The Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia.

June 21-July 31, 1775

Jefferson attends the Continental Congress as a delegate from Virginia.

July 6, 1775

The Continental Congress approves the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms written by John Dickinson and Jefferson.

January 10, 1776

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is published, making the case for independence to the public.

June 11, 1776

The Continental Congress appoints John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman as a committee to draft a declaration of independence.

July 4, 1776

Congress approves the final text of the Declaration, asks the committee to “superintend and correct the press,” and orders it to be sent to all of the states and the Continental Army.

July 6, 1776

The Pennsylvania Evening Post of Philadelphia publishes the Declaration.

July 8, 1776

The Declaration is read at noon in Philadelphia; Trenton, New Jersey; and Easton, Pennsylvania.

July 19, 1776

Congress orders the Declaration to be engrossed on parchment and signed. Most of the delegates sign on August 2.

Introduction

In July 1776, representatives of thirteen of Great Britain’s American colonies voted to declare independence and become thirteen United States. While the official vote on the resolution for independence was taken on July 2, Americans celebrate July 4 as their Independence Day, since that was the day that the world-famous Declaration of Independence was finally approved by the Second Continental Congress. The path to independence was long, contentious, and determined by much more than a single declaration, and the Declaration itself had a longer and more complicated history than that single day. The Declaration proclaimed by Congress was the end result of many choices and revisions of words and ideas by multiple people.

Two approaches can help us see and understand the changes that shaped the document: peeling apart the layers of the text, and following threads of topics and language as they evolved. This exhibit invites exploration of two elements of the Declaration’s creation. Drafting the Declaration illuminates the successive stages of the text. Building Blocks traces the paths by which some pieces that originated in other documents became part of the Declaration. These tools enable us to take a deeper look into this famous document.

Exhibit Sections

First manuscript page of the Declaration of Independence. Handwritten cursive with edits like deletions and insertions.Drafting the Declaration

This section traces the development of the Declaration through the drafting and editing process by Jefferson, the Committee of Five, and the Continental Congress.

Visit the Drafting the Declaration Main Page

Building Blocks

This section traces direct connections to language, phrases, and concepts developed in several Jefferson-related documents in the years immediately preceding the Declaration.

Visit the Building Blocks Main Page

Contributors

This page was created by the staff of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson with assistance from: