DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCEEssential Questions:1.Whose ideas were represented in the Declaration?2.Why was slavery not mentioned in the Declaration?3.How does one reconcile the fact that it says all men are created equal, but slavery was still left in place?4.When was the Declaration signed?

Declaring Independence Congress created a committee to

prepare a formal declaration It was to explain the reasons for the

actions of the colonies Virginia lawyer Thomas Jefferson,

was chosen to express the committees points

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence drew on enlightenment concepts Foremost among them were ideas of

John Locke It went on to list the ways Britain

had violated the colonies “unalienable rights”

In his first draft Jefferson included an attack on the injustice of the slave trade However, George and South

Carolina objected and it was omitted from the final version

Declaring Independence However, it did say “all men

were created equal” But…it was referring to the

belief that free citizens were “politically equal”

It was not meant to embrace women, Native Americans, or African American slaves

On July 2, 1776 the delegates voted unanimously that the colonies were free and independent

On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was adopted It was signed on August 2,

1776

The Declaration of Independence

When in the Course of human events…