The Declaration of Independence

Above, the dramatic recreation of the vote for Independence in the HBO mini-series John Adams. Below the official trailer for the movie.

Below, a series of podcasts that should help you better understand the meaning of the Declaration of Independence. Each is between two and four minutes long. The Declaration document (and subsequent podcasts) are broken into an Introduction – seven individual stanza’s – and a Conclusion. The layout corresponds with the required memorization of the Declaration. Please go here to find the color coded copy of the document.

Declaration of Independence (Introduction)
1 (Course of Human events) – red
2 (We hold these Truths to be self evident) – purple
3 (That to secure these rights) – blue
4 (Prudence will dictate) – green
5 (Such has been the patient sufferance) – black
6 (List of grievances)
7 (We therefore the representatives)
Declaration of Independence (Conclusion)

An extremely interesting study of the Declaration involves a look at the original and edited document. Go here to see Thomas Jefferson’s edits. Blow it up, take a look, and see where Jefferson struggled with the actual wording. It’s fascinating! And go here to see where Congress altered Jefferson’s version of the Declaration. This is cool stuff guys…take a look!

Also – below is a one hour podcast broken into five segments that I think you’ll find entertaining. This is a recording of a WGN radio broadcast out of Chicago in which Thomas Jefferson is interviewed at a live theatre performance. The interview is serious and funny and extremely enlightening into the mind of one of America’s most fascinating founding fathers.

Finally – an interesting little TV commercial that may have been, had Thomas Jefferson and John Adams run against one another for president in today’s negative attack ad dominated bizarro political world.