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The Revolutionary War broke out on April 19, 1775, at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. By the time the Second Continental Congress met in May 1775 to discuss stronger action for independence, tensions in the American colonies ran very high. Colonists who did not wish to remain British subjects declared themselves "Patriots" -- those who remained faithful to England called themselves "Loyalists." On June 11,
1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed a committee of five
men to write a Declaration of Independence from British Rule. Those
five men were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert
Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Jefferson wrote the first draft.
The committee declared it to be almost perfect. The committee presented
the document to the Congress after making a few corrections. Following
a few more changes, Thomas Jefferson's work was approved. Church
bells rang out on July 4, 1776, the day the Declaration of Independence
was adopted and our nation was officially born.
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