Many Americans did not like paying taxes to Great Britain when they did not have anyone to speak for them in Parliament. "Plundered our seas." meant that the founding Fathers blamed the British for the American Revolution.ĭuring this time, many American people were angry at Great Britain. This means that the King and Parliament of Great Britain ruled the Colonies. The individual states were colonies of the British Empire. In the conclusion of the Declaration of Independence a quote was: "with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."īefore the Declaration īefore 1776, the United States of America was not a country.
#DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE DEFINITION FREE#
Instead, the thirteen British colonies came together to become a union of free and independent states. It says that the Americans were no longer under British rule. United States Declaration of Independence is an important document in the history of the United States of America. To announce and explain separation from Great Britain He co-hosted The Two Way from its launch in May 2009 through April 2014.Thomas Jefferson et al. Mark Memmott is NPR's standards and practices editor. Today is a good day to study it again, to listen to Morning Edition's annual reading and to see if you agree with Lucas' conclusions. In his paper, Lucas digs deep and notes that the declaration "gradually becomes a kind of drama, with its tensions expressed more and more in personal terms." Obviously, there's much more that could be said about the language of the declaration. The purpose, Lucas said, is to "slow the text." Especially when the line is read aloud, as the declaration would have been to crowds at the time, the chiasmus forces listeners to concentrate on the message: That the Americans were reasonable people being forced to take up arms, but that they would surely be friends with the British again some day.
In this case, "Friends" was placed at the end of the phrase. That's a rhetorical device in which the second of two parallel phrases is inverted. Today, a speechwriter would very likely had ended that section with "enemies in war, friends in peace."īut the declaration employs a chiasmus. Like their king, it reads, the British were "deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity." (Descent from the same ancestor.)īut, the declaration adds, Americans will treat the British people "as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends." The declaration includes a message aimed straight at the British people. A chiasmus: "Enemies in War, in Peace Friends" The "facts" were not being "suggested" or "alleged." They were being presented as what Jefferson and the others saw them - the truth.
"Submitted" is also an interesting word choice. But prove to whom? To a 'candid world' - that is, to readers who are free from bias or malice, who are fair, impartial, and just." The opening phrase - 'To prove this' - indicates the 'facts' to follow will indeed prove that George III is a tyrant. That last sentence, Lucas wrote in his paper, "is so innocuous one can easily overlook its artistry and importance. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world." "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. The section is introduced with these lines: submitted to a candid world"Ī large section of the declaration is devoted to a list of grievances against King George III.
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