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After much debate, delegates to the Second Continental Congress voted for independence from Britain.
On June 11, 1776, they agreed to form a committee to create a document. It would explain why the colonies wanted independence. They chose John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson. The others made contributions. But the brilliant young Jefferson wrote most of the Declaration of Independence.
▲ Colonial writer Thomas Paine also helped the colonies split away from Britain. He had left there for America just a few years before. Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense said in plain language that the colonies should become independent. It also said that monarchy was a bad form of government. It sold over 500,000 copies. America’s first bestseller convinced many colonists that they had the right to form their own government.
◀ Jefferson wrote a lot of the nation’s first famous document in a rented room in Philadelphia. At age 33, the Virginia lawyer was one of the youngest delegates at the convention. He was shy and barely spoke at the Second Continental Congress. When the other committee members asked him to write the first draft of the document, he refused. Eventually, John Adams talked him into doing the job.
In his draft, Jefferson included a section criticizing King George III for encouraging the slave trade. In Africa, British slave traders exchanged goods for people and took millions of Africans in chains across the Atlantic Ocean. Then they sold them in the American colonies, the West Indies, and Brazil. The Africans were crowded into small spaces underneath the decks of ships. They were given little food or water. Many died on the long trip. Once they reached shore, they were treated as property and denied any rights. Many colonial leaders, including Thomas Jefferson, owned enslaved Africans. ▶
◀ Jefferson took his job seriously. For 17 days, he rose early every morning and sat at a portable desk that he had designed. He never liked to “use two words, when one would do.” He worked hard to include important ideas of the time. He wrote the colonists’ complaints against Britain and the king in clear, plain language.
Most delegates signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776. A few never signed it at all. Some delegates, including Thomas McKean, from Delaware, waited. They said it was too early for independence. McKean didn’t sign it until 1781. Representatives from northernmost New Hampshire were first to sign. The last to sign were from Georgia. ▶
▲ Some committee members made a few small changes in Jefferson’s draft. The whole Congress made several larger changes. Most important, they took out the section that attacked King George III for supporting the slave trade. Slavery had become an important part of colonial life, especially in the southern colonies. Large farms in the South, called plantations, used the free labor of enslaved people. They planted and harvested crops. They did household chores. Some delegates thought that the section on slavery could cause conflict. Some northern colonists objected to slavery, but most southern colonists supported it.
◀ Jefferson and John Adams were friends and rivals. They wrote to each other often. Adams died on July 4, 1826. It was exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration. His last words were, “Thomas Jefferson survives.” Adams was wrong. Jefferson had died the same day, a few hours earlier.
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▲ Today, thousands visit Monticello, the Virginia plantation home that Jefferson designed and lived in. The house is filled with examples of Jefferson’s active mind. He kept large clocks in almost every room, so he wouldn’t waste time. He also filled his place with inventions that made him more productive. There is a machine that copies handwriting and a bookstand that spins around.
