Impactful Documents In The Year 1776

Three main documents that have directly and indirectly affected the American Revolution are The Declaration of Independence (July 1776), Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” (January 1776), and John Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government” (1689). All of these documents are related to one another in the fact that they paved the way for the future of America and led to the amazing country we live in today.

Few documents through American history have withstood the test of time and have become statement pieces for our society. In this group, the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson and Common Sense by Thomas Paine both hold high positions. Thomas Paine wrote “The Crisis”, which was a chapter in his pamphlet Common Sense, which advocated that the thirteen original colonies gain independence from Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence was a government document written in 1776 that proclaims America a state of democracy not connected to Britain. Although they share a general topic, both feature a wide range of similarities and differences to each other. These similarities include the times they were written, similarities in the

The book 1776 by David McCullough tells the story of the military aspects of the American Revolution. McCullough writes the book from both the British and American point of views, creating a better understanding of what both sides were undergoing during the war.

Common Sense written by Thomas Paine in January of 1776, enlightened its readers and ignited the colonists towards the American Revolution. Common Sense was the first document that established a suggestion towards a constitutional form of government. The foundation of the main points in Common Sense were the upbringing of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson in July of 1776 approximately 7 months after Thomas Paine’s work of Common Sense. The Declaration of Independence stated the Americans freedom from Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence was derived from Common Sense and because of this, they have many similarities. The similarities of both documents are; they both call for independence, patriotism and for government and society.

In his book 1776, David McCullough animates the events and people who fought for American freedom in a new light, bridging a gap between the past and the present. The events described in the novel encompasses the beginnings of the American Revolution during the year of the Declaration of Independence and, instead of putting the main focus on certain events or battles, McCullough emphasizes how the people involved may have felt throughout hardships, triumphs, and loss. In 1776 we see historical figures represented in a way never seen before, including their emotional reactions to events as well as their character, which is shown more and more as the book progresses. Events are evidently chronological, mostly in the year of 1776, and the

1. Why did Americans choose not only to break from Britain, but adopt a republican form of government in 1776? What Republican ideas did they share, and what did they disagree about? The Americans chose to break from Britain for a lot of different reasons. But the main reason was they wanted freedom from parliament; they did not want to be governed from overseas, they got sick and tired of the taxation and laws. They adopted the republican government because they did want to be a monarchy or dictatorship; America wanted the “people to rule” the country. They saw how a monarchy worked and did not want to be trapped in the same position Britain’s king was in. America and Britain had similarities and differences in

David McCullough’s novel 1776 is a compelling story of America’s war for independence. We have all read chapters and heard the related history of the war of 1776, but David McCullough takes the epic story even further. The book covers the entire year of 1776 from the beginning of the war until the end. The author provides an extremely detailed description of both sides of the conflict both American and British. David McCullough is a renowned author and historian and has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for two of his novels; John Adams and Truman, and with reading 1776 you can see exactly why he is so celebrated. His

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” This quote in a letter to James Madison, from George Washington, on March 2nd, 1788, explains that once the push for liberty comes through and change is made, it is like the snowball effect. At this point of the war, there were constant losses for the Continental Army they were lacking faith and hope for their liberty. The soldier’s enlistments were also very near to their end and time was going by fast; many were prepared to leave and not signing up again. Overall, the Continental Army was headed towards failure. They needed something to give them a push in the right direction. The battle that raised high spirits in the army was The

In result of The Seven Years’ War Britain controlled American trade and territory. In order to pay for the expenses of the war several taxation acts and military presence were implemented such as the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Currency Act, Quartering Act and the presence of British troops at the colonies. Consequently, Americans who thought these actions violated their political and constitutional liberties opposed these policies with petitions, boycotts, and resistance strategies known as the Imperial Crisis. In January 1776 Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was composed to convince Americans of the need for independence from British rule and establishment of democracy. This pamphlet

In Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the Declaration of independence by Thomas Jefferson, there are some similarities and differences in the way they address what they believe in. They use the same techniques to making their feelings known, which include examining the problem, giving reasons for why it is a problem, and offering their opinion on the solution. Jefferson's and Paine's difference in their tone is obvious when observing who they are referring the documents to, the overall outline of their documents, and the relative significance of the documents.

Outraged. When King George received the petition, he was absolutely furious, so he called the colonists traitors. Specifically, King George III ordered the members of his clergy “to bring the traitors to Justice.” Calling the colonists traitors definitely changed the minds of George Washington's generals. Since most colonists were still loyalists, Thomas Paine wrote an extremely persuasive pamphlet called Common Sense in early 1776. Common Sense changed the minds of thousands of colonists. Countless colonists had a changed decision on how important gaining independence over Britain was. To prove that Thomas Paine’s writing was so powerful and convincing, over 120,000 copies of Common Sense were sold in just a couple months! Governments are secured to protect the people’s natural rights, and the government has a duty to honor those rights. The exact definition of natural rights is any rights that exist by virtue of natural law. Basically, this means that any human being should have basic rights that are not denied by the government. The main purpose of the government was to secure these rights, yet King George III refused to believe in the natural rights. Examples of natural rights include life, liberty, ownership, property,

The novel The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution chronicles in depth the taxing process that led to establishing a new draft of government, the Constitution. Its author David O. Stewart is an adept man, whose notable achievements well qualify him to write in the genre of American History. Stewart has been practicing law in Washington D.C. for over twenty-five years, with many of his cases concerning constitutional law. With this career, Stewart has had the opportunity to not only defend criminals but to challenge government actions as being unconstitutional and to argue cases before the United States Supreme Court, providing him with extensive knowledge of the constitution. While preparing to brief one of these cases to the Supreme Court, Stewart read every page of Madison’s notes from the Constitutional Convention, all five hundred plus, which sparked his desire to write about the Convention. In his writing career, Stewart has been featured in many esteemed columns and newspapers as well as nominated for multiple awards for his work, which often focuses on law. His first novel, The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution, was published by Simon and Schuster and copyrighted in 2007, and contains three hundred forty-nine pages. Special features of the novel include two appendixes, which explain the elector system in depth and display the Constitution. The novel also includes a section of further reading suggestions as well

At The Second Continental Congress in 1775, noble colonists from all thirteen colonies agreed to appoint George Washington, a respectable, trusted leader, as general of the American military and drafted the Declaration of independence, which was approved in 1776. Additionally, Thomas Paine wrote “Common Sense” in 1776 encouraging American colonists to break away from Britain. In the popular pamphlet, he introduced a new political ideology, republicanism, that gave people the authority to choose their

“My country is the world, and my religion is to do good” (Thomas Paine common sense). Thomas Paine was an English-American political activist and philosopher who changed the world through his words and writing. In 'Common Sense', distributed in January 1776, the pamphlets sold in the thousands and was extremely persuasive. It transformed a neighborhood uprising into a War of Independence and Thomas Paine was given the title 'Father of the American Revolution'. He challenged great minds to advocate the idea of freedom of conscience. Thomas Paine's history extraordinarily affected individuals during his own time and furthermore propelled numerous scholars. A few of Thomas Paine achievements were “The age of Reason” and

The United States gained its freedom on July 4th 1776 when they finally had enough of the British empire having control over them. With an important document called the Declaration of Independence the Colonies gained their freedom from the British empire, and established themselves as states. Prior to the revelation of the Declaration of Independence, a man named Thomas Paine wrote an excerpt called Common Sense, which detailed numerous things, but mainly why the colonists should become free from British power. These two documents, The Declaration of Independence and Common sense share similar ideas through philosophical, political, and rational appeals. The influence of Locke’s philosophy can also be seen throughout The Declaration of Independence.