PALO ALTO COLLEGE
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

HISTORY 1301 Theme Six: The Documents of the Revolution

Robert R. Hines
Assistant Professor of History

Reading Assignments:
Howard Zinn A People's History of the United States, Chapter 5
Flyover Text, Readings 16, 17, & 18.
Thomas Paines' Common Sense
The Bill of Rights

Both (A) and (B) are REQUIRED.

The Declaration of Independence, I think, is one of the most remarkable documents in the world... 'Inalienable rights'... 'Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'...'We hold these truths to be self-evident'...[But] it didn't apply to black folks. And the man who wrote those words, Thomas Jefferson, kept slaves, and he understood the inconsistency of all this because he also wrote sometime later to a friend: 'If there is a just God, we are going to pay for this.'
-- General Colin Powell

Instructor's Introduction: Momentum increased for a complete break with England. Through the spring and summer of 1776, one colony after another pledged its support to the radical final step: independence and the formation of a new government. Thomas Jefferson summarized the sentiment of the time in his "Declaration of Independence," penned in a three week period in June, 1776. The Declaration of Independence universalized traditional rights of English people and made them the rights of all humanity. It stated that "all men are created equal...they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." With these words, America secured for itself the envy of oppressed peoples around the globe, then and now. Though it by no means assured American independence, it was an important first step toward building a united front for the coming fight with the British; representatives from all thirteen colonies signed the Declaration.

But these men were not perfect. They made errors in judgment, compromises, which later generations of Americans would have to deal with. With this theme, I want students to look at some of the most important documents in the history of the nation: Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Each built upon the ideas of the other; and each resonates to this day.