Thesis Of The Declaration Of Independence

The Declaration of Independence was America’s declaration of freedom from Great Britain. Americans had begun to shift their view from Britain as a mother country to Britain as an oppressor. The early colonists were no longer willing to endure the oppression, thus a declaration was drafted that declared or demanded freedom. This document was an instrument of hope for the majority of the citizenry, but, also, a source of anguish for those still in bondage. During the course of seventeen days in June of 1776, Thomas Jefferson drafted a document that is still “the nation’s most cherished symbol of liberty” (Archives). It was a formalized document to begin the process of America’s independence from British governance and an overbearing British king. Jefferson was among a group of five men who the Continental Congress had entrusted with this job, and he was elected by his fellow committee members to actually write the document. Jefferson took inspiration from Virginia’s Declaration of Rights and a draft of Virginia’s constitution that he had been writing. He also relied heavily upon his legal education and was “deeply influenced by the 18th-century European intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment. Enlightenment philosophy stressed that liberty and equality were natural human rights” (Monticello).
Prior to the drafting of this document, the American colonists had grown increasingly unhappy with the way they were being treated. They felt that because they were