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Goethe Gymnasium Hamburg

1, Menke, 2014

Jonas H. ©
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Geschichte der Unabhängigkeitserklärung U.S.A - The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in the history of the USA. It was written and signed in 1776, that is 235 years ago.

Before that time there was no country with the name United States of America.


(Arrival) My presentation starts around 1600. Some Europeans moved to America and created colonies. Many of them were looking for a better life, others wanted more freedom or practise their own religion.


(building village) Most people– they were called colonists – lived on farms. They grew their own food, had pigs and cows and they chose their own leaders. Soon they build the first small villages.

(slavery boat) Many people did not choose to come to America. They were forced to come and they were sold to others to work for no money – the slaves. (Slaves

work on farm). They were mostly needed in the Southern States, (coloured states) where they worked on Cotton, Rice and Tobacco farms and where they helped on the farms and in the homes of the Whites.


In the beginning there were 13 colonies on the East coast that belonged to Britain. (Map USA)They were British and they had to follow the British laws. Next to it there were French and Spanish colonies.

The British colonies were far away from Britain (Map with arrows) (more than 4500 miles or 7500 km) but they had to pay British taxes and they had to obey the laws of King George III,

(King George) who was king in Britain from 1760 to 1820.

Because of the high taxes, the colonists were very upset. (soldiers on horse) By 1765 Britain needed money for a war against France and they decided to get more money out of the colonies in America. They raised extra taxes on every item such as tea or clothes.

Of course the colonists didn’t want to pay what lawmakers in Britain decided but by that time they didn’t have representatives to speak for them in the British parliament. So they formed a group of representatives (sons of Liberty) called the Sons of Liberty.

They told the colonists to stop buying the British tea and they started to make their own clothes to get independent from the British goods. (Boston Tea Party)They dressed as Native Americans, climbed on a British ship in Boston harbour and dumped 342 chest of brand new tea into the Boston Harbor. This incident was known as the Boston Tea party.

(Soldiers and family) As a punishment and to protect the tax collectors, King George sent soldiers to the colonists to make sure that they did what he wanted. The British soldiers lived in the colonists houses and controlled them.

(Carpenters Hall) On September 5th, 1774 each colony sent a representative to a meeting at Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia. The meeting was called the First Continental Congress. (Congress) The representatives of course there were all men - sent letters to King George that Kind George never read (Picture letter) and again they asked the colonists to stop buying British goods.

In April 1775 King George heard, (map Lexington/Concord) that the colonists in Lexington and Concord (in the state Massachusetts) started to collect gun powder and guns. They called themselves minutemen because they were ready to fight in a minute.(colonists) King George sent 700 soldiers there to fight against the 70 minutemen. (colonists against soldiers) With this first battle a bloody war began that lasted for six years.

A second Continental Congress met and decided to form an American Army. They chose a man to be the general in charge of the new army. (George Washington) His name was George Washington.

(Washington on Horse) Gen. George Washington, first commander of the Continental Army often stopped and talked with citizens to personally explain his vision for American freedom during the American Revolution.

More and more colonists wanted to break away from Britain and started their own country. They wrote letters to King George but he didn’t react and so (American Army) more and more people wanted to be part of the first American Army.

Colonists who fought for independence from Britain were called Patriots.

By June 1775 they stopped writing letters to King George III, knowing that they wouldn’t change anything.

Jefferson was a very talented lawyer and his aim was to create a government that protected the rights of its people.

(Jefferson alone) It took Jefferson 17 days to write the Declaration of Independence. (Jefferson with Franklin and Adams) He discussed his ideas with Franklin and Adams before writing them down. He hoped that the colonists agreed that it was time for independence from Britain and he wanted the king and the rest of the world to realize why the colonies were breaking away.

The Declaration said that people should have rights that could not be taken away by the king and that a government should listen to the people and had to protect them.

The Congress explained how King George III had stopped the colonists from trading with other countries and prevented them from making decisions in their towns.

Even soldiers from Germany had come to America to fight against the Patriots.

(letters) He talked about all the letters they had written to work things out and that the King had been deaf to the voice of justice.

Jefferson finished writing the Declaration on June 28th, 1776. The most important words of the Declaration are: (Declarationauschnitt)

We hold these truth to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

So Jefferson wanted to give rights to everyone but by that time women, Native Americans and African Americans still did not get the same rights. Not until 1858, when Abraham Lincoln became President and ended slavery.

Jefferson believed that people should create their own rights and they should choose their own leaders.

The Declaration of Independence drafted by Jefferson (picture declaration) shows many areas where he crossed out and replaced sentences trying to write a version that everyone would accept.


In this part he used the words UNITED STATES OF AMERICA for the first time. (Flag)

(congress) On July 1st 1776 , the Congress met to vote on whether it ( it = the Congress )would accept the document and declare independence. The Congress crossed out one more paragraph which said that the king was wrong to allow slavery because many of them owned slaves. Then they all agreed and the document was written with the new words.

(John Hancock) On July 4th the declaration was approved by the signature of John Hancock, the president of the Congress and Charles Thomson, the Congress secretary. (signing) Later the rest of the 56 men signed it, too.

Now America was independent and it was time to share the news with the colonists. The document was given to John Dunlap, a printer in Philadelphia. (population) He made copies of the Declaration and they were spread to all towns and villages.



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