DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

The American Declaratation of Independence is a document,  approved by the Continental Congresson July 4, 1776, that announced the separation of North American British colonies from Great Britain. It talks about what they called unalienable rights: equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, despite they (upper class) omitted Indians, black slaves and women.

I think that both historian,s interpretations of this statement could be close to reality, it is an evidence that Bernard Bailyn one adopts the most extreme position, he says Americans believed an evil and deliberate conspiracy of Britain against their liberty, they believed that England was trying to enslave them and the only option that they had to protect themselves was to use the power which God has given to them. In the other hand Howard Zinn talks about people´s history of the United States, he thinks that the main point of this declaration was the way in which upper class persuade the lower class to join the revolutionary cause, to direct the anger against England and this result was a inspiring language that would avoid class conflict and create patriotic feelings, we can see this patriotic tone in the preamble and the list of grievance.

In my opinion it could be a mix of both, Americans saw a deliberate conspiracy of Britain I don’t know if it was as extreme as Bernard says but I think that Americans believed that they could become a huge independent empire in the world. Knowing these, upper class created a way (patriotic language) to unite large numbers of colonists and fight for their rights.