![]() It would inspire all peoples living under the burden of oppression and ignorance to open their eyes to the rights of mankind, to overturn the power of tyrants, and to declare the triumph of equality over inequality. The revolution begun by Americans on Jwould never end. The principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence promised to lead America-and other nations on the globe-into a new era of freedom. The Declaration sought to restore equal rights by rejecting Britain's oppression. But when Parliament passed laws that violated colonists' "inalienable rights" and ruled the American colonies without the "consent of the governed," colonists concluded that as a colonial master Britain was the land of tyranny, not freedom. The Declaration proclaimed a landmark principle-that "all men are created equal." Colonists had always seen themselves as equal to their British cousins and entitled to the same liberties. America's independence signaled a fundamental change: once-dependent British colonies became independent states that could make war, create alliances with foreign nations, and engage freely in commerce. Instead, the Declaration proclaimed that an independent America had assumed a "separate and equal station" with the other "powers of the earth." With this statement, America sought to occupy an equal place with other modern European nations, including France, the Dutch Republic, Spain, and even Britain. Under the new "system," Americans would govern themselves.Īmerica did not secede from the British Empire to be alone in the world. ![]() As the Declaration made clear, the "long train of abuses and usurpations" and the tyranny exhibited "over these States" forced the colonists to "alter their former system of Government." In such circumstances, Jefferson explained that it was the people’s “right, it was their duty,” to throw off the repressive government. Parliament's taxes imposed without American representation, along with King George III's failure to address or ease his subjects' grievances, made dissolving the "bands which have connected them" not just a choice, but an urgent necessity. The Declaration announced America's separation from one of the world's most powerful empires: Britain. Yet the Declaration helped to transform South Carolinians, Virginians, New Yorkers and other colonists into Americans. In fact, only commercial and cultural ties with Britain served to unify the colonies. In its opening lines, the Declaration made a radical statement: America was “one People." On the eve of independence, however, the thirteen colonies had been separate provinces, and colonists' loyalties were to their individual colonies and the British Empire rather than to each other. These transformations were complex, but the changes owe a great deal to the Declaration of Independence of 1776, what has been properly termed “America’s mission statement.” An American People Before Americans expressed support for equality, their government and society were aristocratic and highly hierarchical. Before America was an independent state, it was a dependent colony. Before Americans governed themselves, they were governed by a distant British king and a British Parliament in which they had no vote. Before Americans were American, they were British.
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