The Declaration of Independence

1. The Declaration of Independence

2. Stamp Act of 1763- protested the act and cited the following prohibition • against taxation without consent • -”No scurage [tax]…shall be imposed…unless by common counsel…” • -They got these words from The Magna Carta, written in 1215 • (550 years earlier!) • American resistance forced the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act • in 1766, but more taxes succeeded this….The American Revolution brewed • and so the framers created The Declaration of Independence, adopted by the • Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, in which the colonies declared their • freedom from British rule! Uncovering The Declaration of Independence

3. Magna Carta= Inspiration English charter issued in 1215 that directly challenged the monarch’s authority Required King John of England to proclaim certain liberties, and accept that his will was not arbitrary The first document forced onto an English King by a group of subjects in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges Led to Constitutional Law in the English speaking world Became more of a symbol as years passed

4. Five Sections: an overview(mark as we discuss) 1.) The Intro: This is the opening paragraph; a single sentence beginning with "We the People..." It is sometime erroneously referred to as the Preamble, probably because the opening paragraph of the US Constitution is referred to as the Preamble to the Constitution. 2.) The preamble: a preamble is a preliminary statement, especially the introduction to a formal document that serves to explain its purpose. In this instance, Jefferson used the preamble to discuss the basic rights of man. The second paragraph, which begins with "We hold theses truths to be self-evident. The Preamble sets the logic al argument that people have rights, that people form governments to secure those rights and when a government becomes destructive of those rights, the people have a right and a duty to throw off that government. - Also divided into 5 propositions (we will mark together) 3.) List of grievances against King George III/The Indictment of King George III: A grievance is (a) an actual/supposed circumstance regarded as a just cause for complaint and (b) a complaint or protestation based on a circumstance. The list of wrongs the King has done to show the ways in which the King has abused the rights of the colonists.

5. Five Sections: An overview 4.) Formal declaration of war/ The Denunciation of the British people: A statement announcing not only the separation of colonial government from British government, but colonial people from British people. In this section, colonists pledged their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.” 5.) Conclusion: The Declaration of Independence from the King and his British peoples is the only logical conclusion to be taken from the above.

6. Terms to know… Diction- word choice Antecedent- noun to which the pronoun refers (I did not see John because he…) “he” is the PN antecedent referring to John. Parallel syntax- the repetition of. words, phrases, and clauses, used in a concise manner, to emphasize a point." Cumulative sentence-An independent clause followed by a series of subordinate constructions that gather details about a person, place, event, or idea. (aka “loose”) Periodic sentence-A sentence in which the main clause or its predicate is withheld until the end; for example, Despite heavy winds and nearly impenetrable ground fog, the plane Anaphora-The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs; for example, "We shall fight on the beaches ... Connotations- the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning

7. Terms to Know… • Loaded diction- language with profound connotations, employed to evoke an emotional response from the reader • Parallel structure- when the same pattern of words is used to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance • Three Aristotelian appeals • Ethos= ethical appeal (morality, trust) • Pathos= emotional appeal (feelings, emotion) • Logos= logical appeal (facts, stats)