The Declaration of Independence is one of our founding documents. But why was the Declaration written and what does it actually say?
Declaration of Independence final w cpb and credits.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
Declaration of Independence final w cpb and credits.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
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Civics 101 is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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All men are created equal, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people that they are absolved from all of the people from.
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I'm Jacqui
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I'm Christina.
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Today on Civics 101 Shorts, we're talking about the breakup letter heard around the world-
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The Declaration of Independence-
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If you know a little something about the founding of the United States. You've probably heard about the nasty breakup it had with Great Britain in the seventeen hundreds.
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But why was the declaration written and what does it actually say?
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Put the kettle on and make yourself a steaming cup of East Indian company black tea.
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Let's set the scene for you.
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The colonists were angry at Great Britain and it's king-
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George, the third-
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for a bunch of stuff.
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But the straw that broke the camel's back was taxes.
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For years, Great Britain and its military have protected the colonists, but it became so expensive that they wanted the colonists to start paying their own way.
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The colonists thought this was unfair. They thought they were paying more than their fair share in taxes, especially since they didn't have any representation in parliament.
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They had no say in what laws they had to follow. The colonists rebelled. They started boycotting, buying stuff from Great Britain.
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They tarred and feathered tax collectors.
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Instead of easing up and playing nice, England doubled down.
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War broke out in 1775.
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The peece died on the Greens of Lexington and Concord. It was murdered again at Bunker Hill.
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The colonists elected delegates to the Continental Congress.
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Less than a year later, with constant fighting,most had lost hope of making up with England.
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So Continental Congress got together for a second time.
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They came from all corners of the 13 colonies, by stage by colonial coach, and by horseback.
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And a resolution was put forth.
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The following resolution was unanimously adopted. Quote,that these United Colonies, that is, those in rebellion against Great Britain. Are and of a right ought to be free and independent state.
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So five respected men were picked to write a formal declaration of Independence.
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Franklin ,Adams, Sherman ,Livingston, myself, of course.
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But as in all group projects, one person really wrote the bulk of it,Thomas Jefferson.
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My name is Thomas Jefferson. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary.
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It's basically a list of complaints,
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A list of all the things that the colonists found unfair and the statement of their rights as citizens.
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All leading up to their right to secede if their rights aren't being met.
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Now, Jefferson didn't come up with the entire thing from scratch, parts.
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The ones we tend to remember-
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Were inspired by the work of famous philosophers like John Locke.
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Locke reasoned that in a state of nature, all people seek to have the rights to life, liberty and property.
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And the Virginia Declaration of Independence
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Article number one, that all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights of which when they enter into-
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Jefferson waxrv poetic about the natural rights of all people-
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snd slammed King George the third and Parliament.
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He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people.
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It took about three weeks of research and writing before the committee was ready to show the draft to Congress.
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Congress then spent two days editing the document,
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And now there's the next paragraph.
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It is my opinion sir, that the whole passage on the matter of slavery must be admitted.
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And why is it? Why continue what we know is wrong?
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We know it is an abomination.
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If you include this paragraph, you will exclude from our forces those who have most bitterly opposed the case.
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Even though the declaration claimed-
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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.
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In reality, they didn't mean all people,
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The document was made excluding people,
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Many of the founders were slave owners themselves. Jefferson had deprived over 600 people of their liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
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And lined his pockets with money because of their suffering.
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100 years later, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, himself formerly enslaved, gave a speech about the hypocrisy of a celebration of freedom that didn't include people like him.
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What to the American slave is your Fourth of July?
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To him, your celebration is a sham. Your boasted liberty an unholy license. Your national greatness, swelling vanity. Your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless. Your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence. Your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery. Your prayers-
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Black Americans weren't the only ones. Native Americans and women were also not included in the rights and liberties outlined in the Declaration on-
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July four, 1776.
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It was actually July 2nd that Congress voted to declare independence.
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On July 4th, 1776.The official wording of the declaration was approved.
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Two days later, John Dunlap toward all night, printing out 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence.
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The document went around the country and to the world by the fire of liberty ever higher.
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A month after the declaration was approved and sent around, the founders met in Philadelphia and signed a copy.
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Putting their names on it was a very risky move.
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It was high treason.
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But Ben Franklin famously said-
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We must hang together, or else most assuredly, we'll all hang separately.
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The signed Declaration of Independence is now housed in the National Archives.
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they are endowed by their creator-
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25 of the originals still exist.
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life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
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And we celebrate the Fourth of July as Independence Day.
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With hot dogs, fireworks-
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Hot dogs from us to any Independence Day party, but when I saw these hot dogs decorated like firecrackers, I knew I had to recreate them...
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Sales.
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This fourth, declare independence from the megastores and keep it local at JNR. We have an incredible array of deals with personal...
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This episode was produced by Jacqui Fulton, Hannah McCarthy.Nick CApodice with help from Christina Phillips. Erica Janik is the big boss music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.
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