The document summarizes key events leading up to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It mentions Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the Second Continental Congress declaring independence, and the committee including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin that drafted the declaration over three weeks with Jefferson as the principal author. The declaration asserted that people have inherent rights that governments are formed to protect, and it listed grievances against King George III and the British government to justify the colonies forming a new nation, the United States of America.

1. The Declaration of Independence 1776

2. Thomas Paine Common Sense

3. The Second Continental Congress Richard Henry Lee – “These united colonies are and of right ought to be free an independent states

4. Committee Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Franklin John Adams Roger Sherman Robert Livingston

5. Thomas Jefferson Principal Author Completed in three weeks

6. MAIN POINTS

7. The nature of fair government recognizes that people are born with certain rights and that a government is formed to protect these rights

8. King George III and the British Government behaved unfairly. The Declaration lists many insults, taxes, and other problems the colonists had put with over the years of British rule.

9. The colonies intended to form a new nation.

10. The United States of America