SELECTED ARTICLES IN THE DECLARATION OF (FREEDOM AND) INDEPENDENCE

BY FAITH RINGGOLD

#1 ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL:

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.

#2 AND WOMEN? A LETTER FROM ABIGAIL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS MARCH 31, 1776:

. . I long to hear that you have declared an independence and by the way in the New Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make. I desire you to Remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all the Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or Representation. That your sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend why then not put it out of the power of the vicious and Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity and impunity. Men of sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the Vessels of your sex. Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection as in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our Happiness.

#3 ABSOLUTE TYRANNY:

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

#4 TAXES ON US WITHOUT OUR CONSENT:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

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 benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.

#5 WE HAVE APPEALED TO THEIR NATIVE JUSTICE AND MAGNANIMITY:

In every stage of these oppressions, We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

#6 AS FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES:

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.

— John Hancock