Question/Problem 1: What were the causes of the American Revolution?

The following background is for the teacher. It can also be used for student enrichment. If necessary, refer to the teacher resource in Unit III on the Mayflower Compact on how to read a document.

• The context of the Declaration of Independence is important. It is drafted simultaneously with the Articles of Confederation and the early state constitutions. It complimented and justified the Articles and, later, the Constitution of 1787.

• The preamble, the first paragraph, explains the document's purpose, and identifies the signers.

• The first middle part, the second paragraph, sets forth principles in the form of rights. These rights also provide the justification for separation and the rationale for listing specific grievances.

• The second middle part contains the grievances, twenty±eight in all. In his commentary on the Declaration of Independence in Roots of the Republic, Donald Lutz points out that the charges against the king are the reasons for separation; th ey are also "a list of American political commitments." (Note that charges are against the king, not the government or the people, in an attempt to isolate the king.) Grievances one through six address the legislative process. Number seven speaks to immigration and westward expansion. Eight and nine are on the judiciary. The executive is found in ten through twelve. Thirteen through twenty± two involve areas of foreign rule. It is implied in the next five charges that the ki ng by withdrawing his protection of lives and property, not the Americans, had broken ties.

• The last charge and the following paragraph provide the transition from the middle parts to the end. They reflect the statements made in the second paragraph of the document. The word "therefore" signals the beginning of the action part o f the Declaration. This is what the signers intend to do and why. The last sentence is our national compact in which God is called as a witness.

• The signers are listed by state in geographic order from north to south.