The year 1776 is quite well known for numerous reasons many of which arose from the American revolution. One of those reasons was the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I see this document as the culmination of the events and writings occurring and seen throughout the Americas beforehand. I believe the Declaration of Independence is shaped out of the discontent with British governing, pride in American achievement, and the rise of new beliefs. Much of this I find evident in the age of enlightenment and even more so in documents such as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.

Many colonists felt that the British government was no longer fulfilling their side of the social contract between the governed and the governing. These colonists felt their natural or “unalienable” rights were being taken advantage of in the form of acts such as the sugar, stamp, currency, quartering, and later the intolerable acts. These acts violated the colonists’ rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or as John Locke, a philosopher of the Enlightenment puts it life, liberty, and property. The last being one of the most abused rights by the means of misrepresentation or more so a lack of representation in lawmaking concerning the territory they resided in. As these feelings of being betrayed came to be many felt it was time to start a new country, one without the pressure of the British pushing them down.

These revolutionaries thought of ways to turn this idea of a new country into a reality. One of their key realizations was the need for independence in both the militaristic and economic sense. The Declaration of Independence was one of their first steps towards this new country. The Declaration was saturated in this discontent with the British. This saturation is seen in the many ways in which Thomas Jefferson writes the reasons for revolution. Jefferson writes how the British government has unjustly imposed their laws and taxes on the colonists. This section of the declaration shows how a written text can be framed by the opinion of the people during the time period of the text.

While discontent with the methods of the British government was high and definitely housed many of the reasons the colonists were trying to break away. Many colonists were starting to no longer see themselves as “British colonists,” but instead as “American patriots.” This new identity was slowly founded after the hardships and successes of colonization. Colonists started thinking they could make it economically without the aid of the British. Then the British begin to disturb the colonists’ economy with “their” taxes. This only served to increase the gap between the society of the colonists and the British government. 

This distinction between the colonists and the British was evident in the diction used in the Declaration of Independence. This distinction is repeatedly shown with the word “he.” This repetition aids in showing how much the colonists have displaced themselves from the British government. After this rift between British and American had been established within the Declaration by stating the wrong doings of the British King, Jefferson writes how “we,” the colonists had struggled and tried to come to an agreement with “them” through petitions and other means only to land upon deaf ears. Jefferson then states that “we, …, the representatives of the united states of America, … ought to be free and independent states.” With this the colonists, or rather the Americans new identity takes form.

As it is true that much of the American Revolution was brought on by a desire to break away from the ways of the European Monarchies, much of the philosophies considered into the creation of the new government were taken from the enlightenment, a European political, philosophical, and scientific movement. Many of the Enlightenment’s thinkers’ ideas left a large impression on the American Patriots looking for Independence. Patriots such as Paine and Jefferson took much away from enlightenment philosopher John Locke. His ideas on governments’ powers being based on the “consent of the governed” had a large effect on the Declaration in forming the idea that the British gain their power from the Americans. By abusing their power, the British have broken the agreement between the governed and the governing leading to the Americans need for Independence.

Another document that I believe pushed the Declaration of Independence to be written is Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. In this pamphlet Paine lays out the reasons, the methods, and the benefits of revolution. I believe this pamphlet common sense became to the people as the title aforementioned, common sense. I believe it was through this document that the declaration was able to appeal to so many colonists. I believe it was because they had come to believe that through revolution they would be able to better themselves and thus to gain independence had become something as simple as breathing it was just “common sense.”

At the beginning of the year 1776 declaring independence had yet to be realized. Declaring Independence had merely been an idea or a wish of some but throughout this year many actions and retaliations would be made leading to the declaration of independence. These skirmishes between the colonists and the British shape what will become known as one of the founding documents of the United States of America 

I believe the year 1776 and the events that transpire throughout it are what pave the way for our country to find desire for independence, its desire to stand on its own, and its desire to be at the top of the world. The grand desires would not have been possible to accomplish if our founding fathers were to stay at the beck and call of the British. Independence was needed in order for our country to move forward. To fulfill our dreams as Americans we need more than to just be given independence, we needed to state that independence was nothing other than one of our natural rights as human beings. We needed to declare what was already ours and afterwards simply seize it.

The declaration of independence as we see it today was only possible because of the time period in which it was created. Due to the styles, opinions, and desires of the people present during this time was the declaration of independence able to become such an important, historic, and powerful document able to push the colonists of Great Britain into firing “the shot heard around the world” and to fight and win against the strongest country of the 1700s. This historic text could not have been written in any other place, time, or by any other people. That is what makes the Declaration of Independence what has been since 1776 and what it will always be for as long as the United States of America exist.
