Declaration of Independence Close Reading

Declaration of Independence as an Artifact

Begin this activity by observing the physical appearance of the Engrossed Declaration of Independence and the Print of the Declaration of Independence.

Consider the following questions regarding the document and type your answers in the next available response box.

1. How would you describe this document to someone who wasn’t looking at it?
2. What do you notice? What specific details stand out?

Declaration of Independence as a Primary Source

Next, we’re going to examine the text of the Declaration of Independence as a historian might encounter a primary source.

Use the Dunlap Broadside version of the document to answer the following questions in the next available blank response box:

1. Who wrote it?
2. Who read it?
3. When is it from?
4. Where is it from?
5. What is it talking about?
6. Why was it written?

Declaration of Independence as a Persuasive Text: Excerpt and Questions

Now, we’re going to examine the text of the Declaration of Independence in short sections to explore its role as a persuasive argument.

"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. How did the authors use language to persuade people to support their case for independence?
2. What specific words or phrases stand out in this section?
3. Evaluate the argument. Is this a strong or weak argument for independence?

Excerpt and Questions

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. How did the authors use language to persuade people to support their case for independence?
2. What specific words or phrases stand out in this section?
3. Evaluate the argument. Is this a strong or weak argument for independence?

Excerpt and Questions

"--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. How did the authors use language to persuade people to support their case for independence?
2. What specific words or phrases stand out in this section?
3. Evaluate the argument. Is this a strong or weak argument for independence?

Excerpt and Questions

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. How did the authors use language to persuade people to support their case for independence?
2. What specific words or phrases stand out in this section?
3. Evaluate the argument. Is this a strong or weak argument for independence?

Excerpt and Questions

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government."

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. How did the authors use language to persuade people to support their case for independence?
2. What specific words or phrases stand out in this section?
3. Evaluate the argument. Is this a strong or weak argument for independence?

Excerpt and Questions

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. How did the authors use language to persuade people to support their case for independence?
2. What specific words or phrases stand out in this section?
3. Evaluate the argument. Is this a strong or weak argument for independence?

Excerpt and Questions

The next section of the Declaration of Independence lists dozens of specific grievances that the colonists have against the British government. These include complaints such as:

• "For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:"
• "For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:"
• "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:"
• "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:"

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. How did the authors use language to persuade people to support their case for independence?
2. Why do you think they included these specific grievances?
3. Evaluate the argument. Is this a strong or weak argument for independence?

Excerpt

Following the grievances, the Declaration of Independence focuses on how they have tried to resolve their grievances with King George peacefully through petitions and how they have appealed to their British brethren to help them, but it has not been successful.

"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."