Annotation: This is the only surviving fragment of the earliest draft of the Declaration of Independence. This fragment demonstrates that Jefferson heavily edited his first draft of the Declaration of Independence before he prepared a fair copy that became the basis of “the original Rough draught.” None of the deleted words and passages in this fragment…

Date:1776 Annotation: The Resolutions and Recommendations of Congress. Document: Continental Congress May 10-15, 1776 Friday, May 10, 1776 A letter of the 7, from General Washington, and A letter of the 3, from Thomas Cushing, Esq. being received, and read: Resolved, That they be referred to the committee on the state of the eastern colonies. A letter…

Author:   Thomas Paine Date:1776 Annotation: John Adams called him “the first man of the Revolution.” Teddy Roosevelt called him a “filthy little atheist.” His name was Thomas Paine. The author of “Common Sense,” “The Rights of Man,” and “The Age of Reason,” Paine was probably the most widely read political pamphleteer of the eighteenth century.…

Annotation: Image shows the first page of the original four page “first draught” of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. This early draft, which included several lines condemning the British for sustaining the practice of slavery, was submitted to Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, who made several corrections before Jefferson penned a final copy…

Author:   Thomas Jefferson Date:1776 Annotation: More than a year past between the outbreak of fighting at the battles of Lexington and Concord and the decision to issue the Declaration of Independence. The major reason for the delay was the high value that the colonists attached to unanimity. While New England, Virginia, and South Carolina…

Author:   Adam Smith Date:1776 Annotation: In his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, the Scottish economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) argued that the individual pursuit of economic self-interest, unhindered by government interference, would promote economic and social well-being. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher,…

Author:   George Washington Date:1775 Annotation: In this letter to Congress, Washington recounted information that he had heard from a sailor: that British Gen. William Howe was sending people out of the city of Boston who had been deliberately infected with smallpox so that they might pass on the disease to the Americans surrounding the city.…

Author:   John Adams Date:1775 Annotation: By the end of 1775, compromise between Britain and its colonies was becoming a less viable option. Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794), a delegate to the Second Continental Congress from Virginia, asked John Adams to help him convince his home state of the need for independence. In response, Adams proposed…

Author:   Mercy Otis Warren Date:1775 Annotation: In May 1775, shortly after the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. In mid-June, Congress established the Continental Army and named George Washington (1732-1799) commander-in-chief. The colonists needed artillery and in May patriots captured Fort Ticonderoga, a British post in New York,…

Date:1775 Annotation: This is a royal proclamation issued by George III, responding to increasing hostilities in the American colonies. Document: A Proclamation, by The King, for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition King George III August 23, 1775 George R. Whereas many of our subjects in divers parts of our Colonies and Plantations in North America, misled by dangerous…