Independence Day

On July 4th we celebrate Independence Day. On this day in 1776 the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, which formally declared that the United States was free of any connection to Great Britain. However, actual independence was not achieved until the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

On June 10th, 1776 the Continental Congress designated the Committee of Five to write a declaration of independence.  The five men on the committee were: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. The committee chose Thomas Jefferson to be the author of the document, and the other members of the committee assisted with editing and revisions. The committee approved the final draft on June 28th, and then submitted it to the Congress. The Congress adopted the declaration on July 4th.

1791 portrait of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Third President of the United States and primary author of the Declaration of Independence.
 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. 

The library has a lot of resources for learning more about the Declaration of Independence. Such as these titles:

American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence by Pauline Maier 

The Annotated U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence by Jack N. Rakove

Collected Works of Roger Sherman by Roger Sherman

The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text as Shown in Facsimiles of Various Drafts by its Author, Thomas Jefferson by Julian P. Boyd
The Declaration of Independence: A Global History by David Armitage
The Declaration of Independence: Its History by John H. Hazelton
The Declaration of Independence of the United States in Ten Languages by United States
Greatness to Spare: The Heroic Sacrifices of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence by T. R. Fehrenbach
Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence by Benson John Lossing
Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality by Danielle S. Allen

If you have any questions about library resources then please contact us at reference@tarleton.edu or 254-968-9249.