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DO THE FOLLOWING:

• Make sure you have updated your

planner/agenda with the People

assignment and next summatives

• Turn to the page after the OPTICS and

title it Declaring Independence

The Road to RevolutionDeclaring Independence

� Met in Philadelphiabeginning in May 1775

� Formed Continental Army

• Washington chosen to lead

� Washington showed up in his military uniform

� Tallest man at convention – he looked the part

� Authorized printing of paper money to pay troops

� Representatives to the meeting were beginning to act like a government

Second Continental Congress

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Battle of Bunker Hill

� Tension was brewing

in Boston 1775

� Colonial militia had seized Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill and fortified Breed’s Hill

� Actually fought on Breed’s Hill

Battle of Bunker Hill� William Prescott, “Don’t

Fire until you see the

whites of their eyes”

� Dr. James Warren,

member of the Sons of Liberty, was killed

� English win battle at

huge cost (1,000 killed or wounded)

• Colonial militia was holding its own against

the world’s most

powerful army.

Congress Offers an Olive Branch

• July 1775 Moderate members of the congress

drafted the Olive Branch Petition

– Asked the King to restore harmony between England and the colonies

• The king rejected the offerand sought new ways to

punish the colonies

– Blocked colonial ports and hired German Hessians to fight in colonies

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Siege of Boston • Continental Army surrounded the British

in Boston

• Washington had

artillery capture at Fort Ticonderoga moved to

Dorchester Hieghtsoverlooking Boston

• The Continental Army controlled the high

ground and threatened to bombard the City

• British Gen. Howe withdrew his troops

Thomas Paine’s

“Common Sense”• In 1776 most colonists

wanted to avoid complete

break with England

• Paine ridiculed the “Divine

Right of Kings” and disagreed with economic

reasons for remaining with England

• Common Sense caused more colonists to embrace

the idea of independence from England

Declaring Independence• May 1776 Second

Continental Congress

adopted resolution authorizing each colony to

create its own government

• Richard Henry Lee (VA)

introduced a resolution saying that the colonies

were “free and independent states”

• A committee was appointed to draft a

declaration of independence

Committee that drafted the Declaration

John Adams

Robert Livingston John Adams

Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Jefferson Roger Sherman

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The Writing of the Declaration of Independence • Thomas Jefferson was chosen to write the declaration

– Excellent writer

– From Virginia

• July 4, 1776 – Congress adopted the Declaration of

Independence

• Based on Natural Rights

philosophy of John Locke

• “Unalienable Rights”

– Life, liberty, and pursuit of

happiness

• John Hancock, president of the congress was the first to sign

Declaring

Independence

The Declaration in Five Parts

• Preamble– “When in the Course of Human events…”

• The Rights of the People– “…We hold these truths to be self evident…”

• List of Grievances– “…He has refused his assent to laws…for the

public good…”

• Efforts to avoid separation– “…We have petitioned for a redress of grievances

in the most humblest terms…”

• Independence Declared– “…These united colonies are, of right ought to be

free and independent states…”