The Declaration of Independence

Lee Resolution presented the Continental Congress on June 7, 1776

Text of Lee Resolution:Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

Life in 1776•Speed of travel was three miles per hour•No paved roads•No electric lights—after dark homes were lit by candlelight & oil lamps.•Homes were warmed by fireplaces•No refrigerators•Music had never been recorded•There was no television, no film, no photographs

•Jane Austen was a one-year-old baby•Thirty-three years before Abraham Lincoln would be born•153 years before Martin Luther King Jr. would be born•539,000 slaves in the British colonies•Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations•Mozart was 21 years old•Beethoven was six years old

•There was no democracy anywhere in the world• England and France were ruled by kings• Catherine the Great was Czarina of Russia• China was ruled by an emperor• Japan was ruled by a shogun• In Europe kings were said to rule by divine

right•San Francisco was founded by Spain•North America was the territory of France, Spain, and England•Washington, D.C. was a nameless swamp•Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense

•The original was engrossed on parchment (an animal skin specially treated with lime and stretched to create a strong, long-lasting writing support).•There are 25 copies known to exist•“Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776” appears on the back of the document.

“. . . We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Approved by Congress on July 2, 1776.

Signed by 12 colonies on July 4, 1776

New York signed it on July 9, 1776

MassachusettsJohn HancockJohn AdamsSamuel AdamsElbridge GerryRobert Treat Paine

PennsylvaniaGeorge ClymerBenjamin FranklinRobert MorrisJohn MortonJames WilsonGeorge TaylorJames SmithBenjamin RushGeorge Ross

VirginiaCarter BraxtonBenjamin HarrisonThomas JeffersonFrancis (Lightfoot) LeeRichard Henry LeeThomas Nelson, Jr.George Wythe

Maryland

Charles CarrollSamuel ChaseWilliam PacaThomas Stone

North CarolinaJoseph HewesWilliam HooperJohn Penn

New JerseyAbraham ClarkJohn HartFrancis HopkinsonRichard StocktonJohn Witherspoon

Rhode IslandWilliam ElleryStephen Hopkins

New YorkWilliam FloydFrancis LewisPhilip LivingstonLewis Morris

GeorgiaButton Gwinnett

Lyman HallGeorge Walton

South CarolinaThomas Heyward, Jr.Thomas Lynch, Jr.Arthur MiddletonEdward Rutledge

Connecticut

Samuel HuntingtonRoger ShermanWilliam WilliamsOliver Wolcott

DelawareThomas McKeanGeorge ReadCaesar Rodney

New HampshireJosiah BartlettMatthew ThorntonWilliam Whipple

Signers of the Declaration

In your journal :Was signing the Declaration of Independence a heroic act? Why or why not?

“The history of the world is but the biography of heroes.” –Thomas Carlyle

It is said that the signers of the Declaration of Independence were heroes because they put their lives on the line to form a new country.

With the above in mind, how can heroism influence the course of history? Be specific and site examples