Declaration of Independence When armed conflict between bands of
American colonists and British soldiers began in April 1775, the
Americans were ostensibly fighting only for their rights as
subjects of the British crown. By the following summer, with the
Revolutionary War in full swing, the movement for independence
from Britain had grown, and delegates of the Continental
Congress were faced with a vote on the issue. In mid-June 1776,
a five-man committee including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and
Benjamin Franklin was tasked with drafting a formal statement of
the colonies' intentions. The Congress formally adopted the
Declaration of Independence--written largely by Jefferson--in
Philadelphia on July 4, a date now celebrated as the birth of
American independence. Before the Declaration of Independence
Even after the initial battles in the Revolutionary War broke
out, few colonists desired complete independence from Great
Britain, and those who did--like John Adams-- were considered
radical. Things changed ov