Why was the Declaration of Independence written
Although the United States is regarded as the unofficial world leader in present times, the situation was not anywhere close to its present form till a few centuries back. It might come as a shock to many to realize that the residents of the first colonies of America considered themselves to be British, and were under the so called protection of the King of England. In the pretext of governing the American colonies, the British rulers were actually eating away at the resources of these colonies. A barrage of illogical and unethical taxes and regulations in several colonies by the British Rulers in the timeline from 1750 to 1775 resulted in the people of American colonies realizing the true intentions of their rulers. The unrest caused by the tyrannical British rule and the flagrant violation of the human rights of the colonists ultimately paved the way to the engendering of the Declaration of Independence.
The oppressed colonists formed a committee that tried to enumerate and analyze the unjust taxes and laws being implemented by the British King’s rule, but the powerful authorities turned a deaf ear to these complaints. The committee then nominated the Second Continental Congress, a committee of five men specially selected to prepare a document that would announce the discontinuation of several colonies from supporting the King, and their subsequent independence from any sort of influence from England.
Thomas Jefferson proved instrumental in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. His framing of the Declaration was approved by the Second Continental Congress. This approval was equivalent to the announcement of independence of the American colonies from the oppression of the British Rule. The Declaration of Independence laid out the path for a progressive American society.
Through the Right to Live in Freedom, the Declaration conferred on the colonists the right to pursue happiness and also gave them the right to do away with a government that failed to serve its people. Then, the Declaration talked about the Right t Representation, stressing on the need of having colonist representatives in the government to avoid a tyrannical rule such as that the British Empire.