That document would become known as the Declaration of Independence. Livingston, to draught a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain. However, before leaving, the delegates formed a five-man committee, which included Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson, Massachusetts’ John Adams, Connecticut’s Roger Sherman, Pennsylvania’s Benjamin Franklin, and New York’s Robert R. Congress postponed a vote on Lee’s proposal and called a recess for several weeks in the midst of intense discussion. When the Continental Congress assembled at the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on June 7, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies’ independence. North Carolina’s revolutionary convention was the first to vote for independence in March 1776, and by mid-May, seven other colonies had followed suit. It is pertinent to mention that Until the 1790s, most Americans were unaware that Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence prior to then, the declaration was seen as a collaborative effort by the whole Continental Congress. In the same month, Thomas Paine, a recent British immigrant, released “Common Sense,” arguing that independence was a “natural right” and the only route for the colonies the booklet sold over 150,000 copies in its first few weeks. In January 1776, word of his statements reached America, bolstering the radical cause and prompting many conservatives to give up hope of reconciliation.
In his October 1775 letter to Parliament, King George III railed against the insurgent colonies and commanded the expansion of the royal army and fleet.
Over the next year, however, things altered as Britain attempted to destroy the rebels with the full weight of its vast army. This date is now commemorated as the birth of American independence.Įven after the Revolutionary War’s initial conflicts, few colonies desired complete independence from Britain, and those who did–such as John Adams–were regarded as radicals. On July 4, 1776, the United States Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, which was substantially drafted by Jefferson.
A five-man committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, was tasked with producing a formal statement of the colonies’ intentions in mid-June 1776. The drive for independence from Britain had increased by the next summer, with the Revolutionary War in full swing, and delegates to the Continental Congress were forced to vote on the matter. The Americans were purportedly fighting for their rights as subjects of the British monarch when armed confrontation between bands of American colonists and British soldiers began in April 1775.