Causes Of The Declaration Of Independence Dbq

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The Revolutionary War was the fight for the rights of American colonists. Before, Great Britain passed series of laws that slowly took away the liberties of those who lived in America. In response, the American government, the Articles of Confederation, wrote the Declaration of Independence, asserting their rights to govern themselves, thus waging war against Great Britain. Specifically, the colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence because they wanted freedom from subservience to Britain, from oppression, and of a fair and representative government in the form of a republican democracy. One goal of the revolution was to be a sovereign nation instead of a colony of Britain. The colonies’ subordinate position to Great Britain aroused …show more content…
During colonial era, African American slaves and women had restricted rights; for example, they could not vote, own land, or live freely—similar to the Americans under British rule. By fighting for freedom, those under oppression believed that may would be released from their subordinate position. In her letter to her husband John Adams, Abigail Adams implores that he does “not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands,” (Doc 4). As a woman, Abigail Adams had dealt with the “Naturally Tyrannical” men who ran the country, changing her overall point of view; thus, she deemed it necessary to forewarn her husband, a founding father who had the power to control the new legislation to some extent. With the “[declaration of] an independency,” she could challenge “those customs which treat [women] only as the vassals of your Sex,” (Doc 4). In addition to women demanding their rights, African Americans vocally defied the hypocrisy of the declaration, a document that claimed all men are created equal. Realizing that the Revolutionary War emancipated the Americans from the grips of British rule, Cato, a freed slave, expected freedom to extend to African Americans as well. He implies his purpose in the message to the legislature by claiming their freedom is “one more step to universal civilization,” and implicitly characterizes slaves as “those who had lived in …show more content…
A similar fight for power began in 1861 in the form of the American Civil War. During that era, there were vociferous debates over slavery and political rights: the North followed abolitionist ideals and envisaged a strong federal government while the South depended upon slavery for its economy and preferred the power to lie in the state governments. As tensions increased and each side attempted to force their ideals onto each other, separatists began to spread rhetoric about seceding from the United States of America, similar to the calls to action of colonists who wanted to separate from Great Britain in the 1700s. Eventually, the South waged war against the North in hopes of exiting the United States and becoming the Confederate States. Likewise, prior to and after the Revolutionary war, the colonies had entirely different ideals that starkly contrasted with the British model when it came to running their country. Correspondingly, columnists and journalists helped to amplify the beliefs of the masses. Eventually, the colonists reached a point where waging war to fight for their liberties was a necessity, in the same way that the South retaliated against the North almost a century
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