The document discusses the growing calls for independence in the American colonies in the late 1700s. It describes how Benjamin Franklin had never heard colonists express a desire for separation from Britain in 1775. However, Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" and the failure of reconciliation efforts helped shift public opinion towards independence. The document also outlines key events that moved Congress to declare independence in 1776, including the establishment of a diplomatic committee in 1775 and calls from figures like Charles Lee. It concludes with a summary of the Declaration of Independence and some of the Enlightenment ideas that influenced the founding of the new nation.

1. Lesson 6
Independence

2. In 1775, Benjamin Franklin recalled, “…having more
than once travelled almost from one end of the
Continent to the other and kept a great variety of
company, eating drinking and conversing with them
freely, I never had heard in any conversation from
any person drunk or sober, the least expression of a
wish for a separation, or hint that such a thing
would be advantageous to America.”
From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin:
Journal of Negotiations in London, 22 March 1775
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/
01-21-02-0306

3. Common sense
• Sold 500,000 copies in first year
• Expressed and helped to mould the
developing mood
• Paine argued that events made
independence a foregone conclusion
• “Reconciliation is now a fallacious dream”
• He attacked the British constitution and
the king and the whole concept of
hereditary monarch and aristocratic
privileges
• Paine called on Americans to establish a
republic, based on a broad franchise and
annual assemblies

4. The need to declare independence
• In November 1775 congress had established a
Committee of Secret Correspondence to carry
on diplomacy with foreign nations and also
sent a delegate from Conneticut, silas deane
to france to obtain militay supplies
• Many believed that foreign aid would not be
forthcoming until america declared
independence

5. Calls for independence
“ I can assure you that the spirit of the people cries out for this
Declaration. The military, in particular, men and officers, are
outrageous on the subject. And a man of your excellent discernment
need not be told how dangerous it would be in our present
circumstances to dally with the spirit, or disappoint the expectations of
the bulk of the people. May not despair, anarchy, and finally,
submission, be the bitter fruits? I am firmly persuaded that they will.
In this persuasion, I most devoutly pray that you may not merely
recommend, but positively lay injunctions on your servants in Congress
to embrace a measure so necessary to our salvation.”
• CHARLES LEE ARGUES FOR INDEPENDENCE (1776)
• https://alphahistory.com/americanrevolution/charles-lee-
independence-1776/

6. The Halifax resolves
“…that the delegates for this Colony in the
Continental Congress be empowered to concur with
the other delegates of the other Colonies in
declaring independency and forming foreign
alliances… resolving to this Colony the sole and
exclusive right of forming a constitution and laws
for this Colony, and of appointing delegates from
time to time…”
• https://alphahistory.com/americanrevolution/hal
ifax-resolves-1776/

7. THE VIRGINIA BILL OF RIGHTS (1776)
• “That all men are by nature equally free and
independent, and have certain inherent rights,
of which, when they enter into a state of
society, they cannot by any compact, deprive
or divest their posterity; namely, the
enjoyment of life and liberty with the means of
acquiring and possessing property, and
pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety”.
• https://alphahistory.com/americanrevolution/
virginia-bill-of-rights-1776/

8. The situation in early 1776
“Rather than an inevitable ripening of difference, the
revolution violently wrenched reluctant colonists into a new
and uncertain future as an independent country.”
Alan taylor
American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804, by
Alan Taylor

9. IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united
States of America
When in the Course of human events it
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected
them with another and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect
to the opinions of mankind requires that

10. Declaration of Independence
• “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain
unalienable rights… life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to
secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever
any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the
right of the people to abolish it…”
• These words do not include women, natives, or slaves.

12. The Enlightenment
• Enlightenment ideas of John Locke and Rousseau
strongly influenced the colonists
– Locke said everyone has natural rights and the power
of government is dervied from popular consent
• Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense” (Jan 1776)
argued for independence
– Radical idea at the time
– Called for the creation of a republic (representative
government) based on the natural rights of the people
– Strongly influenced by the Enlightenment

13. Declaration of Independence
• Thomas Jefferson drfated the formal declaration
of independence
• Goals: Justify independence by listing grievances
against King George III
– Took out the one Jefferson wrote against slavery
• To rally support amongst the colonists
• To get assitance from foreign nations
• Broad appeal by declaring “unalienable rights”
(natural rights) and the power of government rest
with the people – popular soveriengty

14. Colonial unity?
• Patriots Loyalists
• Colonists who fought colonists loyal to
• agaunst The british britain – treated as
traitors/property
seized/harassed
• About 80,000 emigrated from the US
• Most colonists neutral or apathetic

15. Britain vs america
• Great britain was economically and miliraily
superior to the coonies
• Considerable loyalist opposition
• Weak government structure under the
continental congress
• Colonists had greater familiarity with the land
• Us eof guerilla warfare
• Resilient military and political leadership
• Ideoligical commitment
• Eventual support from european allies

16. Comparing British Vs. Colonial Army
• English
• Strengths
• Well trained,
very disciplined
• Better equipped
• The worlds best
Navy
• Weaknesses
• Have to cross
Atlantic Ocean
• Do not know
landscape
• Hire
Mercenaries
• Colonial Army
• Strengths
• Believe in
their cause
• Eventually
receive help
from France
and Spain
• Know the
landscape
• Weaknesses
• Untrained
• Poorly
equipped
• Small navy

17. Important Battles
• New York, June 1776
• General Howe arrives with 32,000
troops
• Washington barely escapes to New
Jersey
• Trenton, December 25, 1776
• Washington and 2,400 troops
surprise and take 900 Hessians
prisoner
• January 2, 1777
• Washington sneaks behind Cornwallis
and forced British out of Princeton
• Saratoga October, 1777
• Stop British attack from Canada-
force Gen. Burgoyne to surrender