In this episode, I cover the independence movements in the colonies. First with Rhode Island and Virginia, which severed their allegiances autonomously and formed independent republican governments prior to the Declaration of Independence. I next move to the Second Continental Congress, where Richard Henry Lee proposed a dissolution resolution, and a committee was formed to create a document to articulate the causes that impelled the American states to the separation. After doing so, I address the structure of the Declaration of Independence, its purposes, its influences, and its ramifications.
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Recommended Readings
The Virginia Declaration of Rights
The Declaration of Independence
Kevin Gutzman, Virginia’s American Revolution
Mercy Otis Warren, The Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution
Murray Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty
- Today in History: Newly Independent American States Sign Treaty of Alliance With France - February 6, 2024
- Thomas Paine: A Lifetime of Radicalism - October 3, 2023
- Thomas Paine Played Dodgeball With Death - September 23, 2023