The Declaration of Independence Classroom Activities by Scholastic SC-0439385199-938519

The Declaration of Independence American Revolution Activity

The History
In the summer of 1776, over a year after the confrontations at Lexington and Concord, after the bloodless capture of Fort Ticonderoga, and the bloody Battle of Bunker Hill, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. John Adams of Massachusetts spurred the delegates to approve a break from Great Britain. Then he and Ben Franklin turned to the delegate from Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, and asked him to write the reasons why the American colonies were rebelling from the Mother Country. Jefferson went to write in his rented room. Several days and many drafts later, he returned with a document in which he listed a number of reasons why the colonies should rebel. “King George III,” wrote Jefferson, “has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislatures. He has cut off our trade with all parts of the world, he has imposed taxes without our consent, he has deprived us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury.” Before listing these abuses however, Jefferson wrote a paragraph that would ring down through the ages. It reads, in part,