What Event Triggered Our Founding Fathers to Declare Independence?
What Lead Up To Our Declaration of Independence
Several events are credited, erroneously, as being THE event that triggered our Founding Fathers (most less than 40 years of age, to declare our independence from the mightiest armed forces in the world at the time.
However, it wasn’t just one event but several that light metaphorically speaking lit and continued to lit the fuse to declare our independence.
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A more appropriate metaphor would be a catapult - adding more stones with each push by King George to tighten his grip on the Colonies, starting in the late 1600s…
Despite what some will say, the colonies were not in a state of economic crisis, but the cost of creating the British Empire was high, leading to discontent among the colonists
The geographic distance between England and the colonies created a sense of separation, making it difficult for the British government to respond quickly to colonial concerns
As an example, today we can send a message via phone call, email, or social media resulting in almost immediate views - though the telegraph was invented in 1837, it wasn’t until 1858, 82 years after our declaration for independence and 7 years before the Civil War, that the first intercontinental message could be sent
Religious issues, political ideals, and economic debates rose to the surface, further contributing to the growing discontent
1765: the Stamp Act - The British government’s imposition of taxes (the Stamp Act was the most preposterous of several tax acts) without representation in Parliament created resentment and frustration among the colonists (the act was to raise revenue to pay for the British army stationed in the colonies)
The Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains, led to resentment and frustration among the colonists
1770: The Boston Massacre - Tensions between British soldiers and American colonists in Boston came to a head, resulting in the deaths of five colonists and further solidifying opposition to British rule (many credit this with the start of our war for independence; in the 1700s protocol, was very important and a war did start without a declaration which came 4 years later. Without such a declaration such events were treated as an uprising, not a war)
1773: The Boston Tea Party - Colonists dressed as Native Americans boarded British ships and threw tea into the harbor, protesting British taxation and control.
The lack of representation and lack of a say in British government decisions created a sense of powerlessness and inequality among the colonists
All of this started coming to a head in the winter of 1773-1774 when the Colonists started resisting the hold George had been slowly tightening on the Colonies (slowly in our days, was rather in quick succession when times were simpler).
King George hoped that the Intolerable Acts, a set of 4 acts Imposed on the Colonies for their resistance, would isolate radicals in Massachusetts and cause American colonists to concede the authority of Parliament over their elected assemblies.
The calculated risk backfired: the harshness of some of the acts made it difficult for colonial moderates.
Response to the Intolerable Acts
In response to the Intolerable Acts, the American colonists took a series of bold actions to defy British authority and assert their rights. These actions included:
1774-1780: Massachusetts Provincial Congress [archive] - The Massachusetts Provincial Congress, led by Dr. Joseph Warren, issued a series of resolutions calling for resistance to the Intolerable Acts and demanding their repeal
1774-1781: Continental Congress - The First Continental Congress (1774), held in Philadelphia in September 1774, was a gathering of representatives from 12 colonies (Georgia did not attend) to coordinate a unified response to the Intolerable Acts. The Congress issued a Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which listed the colonies’ complaints against Great Britain and called for the repeal of the Intolerable Acts. When the Second Continental Congress (1775) assembled in the Pennsylvania State House, hostilities had already broken out between American and British troops at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts
Boycotts and Non-Importation Agreements: Colonists across the 13 colonies agreed to boycott British goods and trade, and many signed non-importation agreements to protest the Intolerable Acts
Arming and Training: Many colonists began to arm themselves and train for militia service, preparing for potential conflict with British forces
Consequences of Colonial Actions
The consequences of the colonists’ actions were far-reaching and ultimately led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War:
Escalation of Tensions: The Intolerable Acts and the colonists’ responses to them further escalated tensions between the colonies and Great Britain, making it increasingly difficult to find a peaceful resolution
Formation of the Continental Army: The First Continental Congress’s decision to form a Continental Army, led by George Washington, marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War
April 19, 1775: The Battles of Lexington and Concord - The first shots of the American Revolutionary War were fired, marking the beginning of the fight for independence.
War and Independence: The war lasted from 1775 to 1783, resulting in the defeat of the British and the recognition of American independence by Great Britain
Establishment of the United States: The American Revolution led to the establishment of the United States of America as a sovereign nation, with the Declaration of Independence adopted in 1776 and the Treaty of Paris signed in 1783
These events created a sense of urgency and desperation among the colonists, who felt that they had no choice but to take up arms against the British government. The Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1776, formally declared the colonies’ independence from Great Britain and marked the beginning of the United States of America as a sovereign nation.
The 27 Grievances Listed In Our Declaration of Independence
In the language of our Declaration…
“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”
“He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.”
“He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.”
“He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.”
“He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.”
“He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.”
“He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.”
“He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.”
“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.”
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”
“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.”
“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”
“He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.”
“For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.”
“For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.”
“For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.”
“For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.”
“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.”
“For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.”
“For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.”
“For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.”
“For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.”
“He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.”
“He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.”
“He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.”
“He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.”
“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
For detailed explanations of the grievances, click here (opens in the Journal of the American Revolution website)
Text of the Declaration of Independence
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 they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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, that among these are 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 of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states;
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
For imposing taxes on us without our consent;
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses;
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies;
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, 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; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Signers of Our Declaration of Independence And Their Ages
The average age for a signer was 44,
* Evidence exists that this age is not precise, or only a birth year is known…
Thomas Lynch, Jr., 26
Edward Rutledge, 26
George Walton, 27*
Thomas Heyward, Jr., 29
Benjamin Rush, 30
Elbridge Gerry, 31
Thomas Jefferson, 33
Thomas Stone, 33*
William Hooper, 34
Arthur Middleton, 34
James Wilson, 34*
Samuel Chase, 35
William Paca, 35
John Penn, 35
George Clymer, 37
Thomas Nelson, Jr., 37
Charles Carroll, 38
Francis Hopkinson, 38
Carter Braxton, 39
John Hancock, 39
John Adams, 40
William Floyd, 41
Button Gwinnett, 41*
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 41
Robert Morris, 42
Thomas McKean, 42
George Read, 42
Samuel Huntington, 44
Richard Henry Lee, 44
Robert Treat Paine, 45
Richard Stockton, 45
William Williams, 45
Josiah Bartlett, 46
Joseph Hewes, 46
George Ross, 46
William Whipple, 46
Caesar Rodney, 47
William Ellery, 48
Oliver Wolcott, 49
Abraham Clark, 50
Benjamin Harrison, 50
Lewis Morris, 50
George Wythe, 50*
John Morton, 51*
Lyman Hall, 52
Samuel Adams, 53
John Witherspoon, 53
Roger Sherman, 55
James Smith, 56
Philip Livingston, 60
George Taylor, 60*
Matthew Thornton, 62
Francis Lewis, 63
John Hart, 65*
Stephen Hopkins, 69
Benjamin Franklin, 70
Ages of Historical Figures of the Time
*Evidence exists that this age is not precise, or only a birth year is known
Andrew Jackson, 9
(Major) Thomas Young, 12
Deborah Sampson, 15
James Armistead, 15
Sybil Ludington, 15
Joseph Plumb Martin, 15
Peter Salem, 16*
Peggy Shippen, 16
Marquis de Lafayette, 18
James Monroe, 18
Charles Pinckney, 18
Henry Lee III, 20
Gilbert Stuart, 20
John Trumbull, 20
Aaron Burr, 20
John Marshall, 20
Nathan Hale, 21
Banastre Tarleton, 21
Alexander Hamilton, 21*
John Laurens, 21
Benjamin Tallmadge, 22
Robert Townsend, 22
George Rogers Clark, 23
David Humphreys, 23
Gouverneur Morris, 24
Betsy Ross, 24
William Washington, 24
James Madison, 25
Henry Knox, 25
John Andre, 26
John Paul Jones, 28
Bernardo de Galvez, 29
Robert R. Livingston, 29
John Jay, 30
Tadeusz Kosciuszko, 30
Abigail Adams, 31
John Barry, 31
Casimir Pulaski, 31
Anthony Wayne, 31
Joseph Brant, 33
Nathanael Greene, 33
Benedict Arnold, 35
Thomas Knowlton, 35
Hercules Mulligan, 36
Andrew Pickens, 36
Haym Salomon, 36
John Sullivan, 36
Charles Cornwallis, 37
Ethan Allen, 38
King George III, 38
George Clinton, 39
Daniel Morgan, 39
Thomas Paine, 39
Patrick Henry, 40
Enoch Poor, 40
Daniel Boone, 41
John Lamb, 41*
Paul Revere, 41
Thomas Sumter, 41
John Dickinson, 43
John Glover, 43
Benjamin Edes, 43
Charles Lee, 44
Francis Marion, 44
Lord North, 44
George Washington, 44
Joseph Galloway, 45
Friedrich von Steuben, 45
Martha Washington, 45
(Dr.) Thomas Young, 45*
Henry Clinton, 46
William Howe, 46
John Stark, 47
Mercy Otis Warren, 47
Horatio Gates, 48
Artemas Ward, 48
George Mason, 50
Lord Stirling, 50
Guy Carleton, 51
Comte de Rochambeau, 51
James Rivington, 52*
Comte de Grasse, 53
John Burgoyne, 54
Johann de Kalb, 55
Thomas Gage, 56
Israel Putnam, 58
Comte de Vergennes, 58
Lewis Nicola, 59*
George Germain, 60
sources
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encylopedia.com
Journal of American Revolution
Library of Congress
USHistory.org
History.com
Concordia.edu
Battlefields.org
WorldHistory.org