![]() In addition to the above video produced by the Oxford Observer on social contract theory, turn to the Teacher's Guide on EDSITEment-reviewed PBS Liberty for more on the key themes of natural rights, the social contract, the right to revolution, popular sovereignty, and the right of self-determination in the Declaration. Upon completion of the lesson, students will be familiar with the document's origins, and the influences that produced Jefferson's "expression of the American mind." Reflecting back forty-nine years after the fact, did Jefferson accurately portray the process that went into the creation of the Declaration of Independence? If so, what were those "harmonizing sentiments of the day" to which he referred? This lesson plan looks at the major ideas in the Declaration of Independence, their origins, the Americans' key grievances against the King and Parliament, their assertion of sovereignty, and the Declaration's process of revision. Looking back to the early years of the American Revolution, Jefferson related how the decision "to resort to arms for redress" of American grievances led patriots of the American cause to issue "an appeal to the tribunal of the world" with an eye towards explaining and justifying the American actions. In an 1825 letter to Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, discussed who deserved credit for the ideas contained in that document.
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