Document 1: The Declaration of Independence, 1776
The thirteen colonies issued the Declaration of Independence in response to the ongoing conflict between the colonies and Great Britain. In it, they listed many problems they had with the British government.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve (end) the political bands which have connected them with another... a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel (require) them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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.-- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government... 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. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
-He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good...
-He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures...
-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 taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments...
-He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people...
-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.
