Declaring Independence

Declaring Independence

Checkpoint 1

What is the Declaration of Independence?

When and where was it written?

The Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence—written largely by Jefferson—in Philadelphia on July 4, a date now celebrated as the birth of American independence.

Who were the main people who wrote it and what were their responsibilities?

The draft, written in July 1776, is in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration. It was discovered in 1947 by historian Julian P. Boyd in the Jefferson papers at the Library of Congress.

Why did the colonists want independence?

Multiple Select

How did the colonists share their frustrations with the English and ask for independence?

• Boston Massacre

• Boston Tea Party

• The Quartering Act was actually a series of three laws

• Drank tea and ate cookies

Checkpoint 2

International Independence

Haiti's Independence Movement

January 1, 1804

Haiti's Independence Movement

• The largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western Hemisphere

• Haiti was the second nation in the Western Hemisphere to win independence from its European Colonizer

• The Haitian independence movement was influenced by the French Revolution (1789) and the Declaration of the Rights of Man