The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, What follows, the original transcript of the Declaration of Independence, was provided by the U.S. Heather Whippsįull Text of the Declaration of Independence A world of empires was gradually turning into a world of sovereign states. In the years that followed, themes from the Declaration were sourced and reinterpreted for further independence movements in Greece, Poland, Russia and throughout South America. Ironically, former slaves in Haiti had used the Declaration of Independence as a model in their fight for freedom while the document gave no such rights to slaves in the United States. Led by freed slave Toussaint L'Ouverture, who quoted both France and America's declarations to stir the uprising, Haiti achieved its own liberty in 1804. Haiti had been a profitable sugar and coffee colony for centuries, known as one of the cruelest plantation islands in the Caribbean. With its mother country France in disarray, another colony inspired by the American Revolution sought independence in the late 18th century. Jefferson happened to be a minister to France at the time and became an ardent supporter of the revolutionaries, even helping to draft a charter of rights in support of a new republic, eerily similar to the one he'd written just over a decade prior. Jefferson himself predicted that American independence would be a catalyzing force - a "ball of liberty," he called it - that would soon make its way across the globe.įirst came France, whose revolution in the 1780s and 90s drew upon the American experience and literature for inspiration. Several countries used the document as a shining beacon in their own struggles for independence and adopted Jefferson as their figurehead. Immediately after it was printed, the Declaration sparked worldwide debate on the legitimacy of colonial rule. When his final draft was edited and adopted by Congress on July 4th, the statement signified independence, but it also solidified the path to all-out war, and not just in the new United States. It was the fiery political climate into which the Declaration was born that made Jefferson's words so important. A number of global texts written during the highly charged Enlightenment years of the 17th and 18th centuries included similar ideals about liberty and the right to self-determination, and Americans throughout the colonies were already promoting the progressive worldview in newspapers and schoolbooks. The ideas Jefferson expressed, which justified the reasons for revolt with a list of charges against the British king, weren't original. It shows the five-man drafting committee presenting their work to the Congress. This depiction of the Declaration of Independence is a painting by John Trumbull.
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