Declaration of Independence Analysis

                Today in Human Geography Mr. Schick was out (sadness) but he left us work to do. The work for today was to read the Declaration of Independence and write an analysis which we post to our blog. I’m assuming this replaces blog as it goes on our blog site and is about what we did in class today, but if I’m wrong please correct me so I can write a blog. The first opening paragraph summarizes what’s going to be in the document, saying that it is necessary for America to leave Britain and that they will write their reasons for secession in it. The next paragraph talks about how every person is created equal by God and that by this reasoning every person’s government should support them with the rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Then they go on to say that Britain is not following these rules and that they have the right to form a new government if these rights are not supplied. They then say they will list the reasons why the king is not following these rules. This next part is mostly short arguing points, and I’ll summarize them in the briefest way possible. The colonists say that the king creates laws that are not fair or help others, does not give them representation or a say in what happens in the colonies, and that the king has meetings about what they are doing in the colonies in ridiculous places to tire the colonies into submission. The colonists then write about how the king is disabling their ability to form their own means of basic government, while also imposing his will on those who do form any means of government. They also speak about the king interfering with their ability to expand territory (when the king said that they couldn’t move into the Ohio River Valley). They also speak of the soldiers that are positioned here to oppress the colonists and how they are invulnerable to punishment for the crimes they commit, as well as how Britain is restricting their trade rights with other countries. They also speak about taxes without consent and being tried for crimes they didn’t commit, and lastly how Britain has taken whatever they wanted form the colonists. After this, the document returns to paragraph format. The colonists write that though they did not want it to come to this, Britain does not listen to their pleas of change for the laws. The colonists end that they are officially declaring themselves independent of Britain.