ORCID ID
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6182-0424
Date Awarded
2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
History
Advisor
Karin Wulf
Committee Member
Nicholas Popper
Committee Member
Zara Anishanslin
Abstract
“When the Declaration of Independence was News” focuses on the nine months between May 1776 and January 1777 when the Continental Congress’ Declaration of Independence was news. Proclaiming independence to the world was a messy and unpredictable process that has been overlooked in the historiography of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution more broadly. Once the Declaration was printed, the Continental Congress had little control over what people did with it or thought of it. The Declaration was celebrated, but the text was also translated, excerpted, and critiqued in ways that undermined the sovereignty of the United States. As news, the Declaration of Independence was obscured by and combined with other pieces of information and misinformation. The founding of the United States looks different when we consider the timing of the Declaration, as well as the time it took for the Declaration to circulate around the Atlantic. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 set up the local and international expectations for a declaration of independence from Great Britain by focusing on two resolutions dated May 15, 1776: one passed by the Continental Congress, recommending the establishment of new governments in every colony, the other passed by the Virginia Convention, instructing Virginia’s delegates in the Congress to declare independence. Richard Henry Lee formally presented these new instructions on June 7, and after a few days of debate, the Congress postponed a vote on independence for three weeks. Meanwhile, the news of the May 15 Resolution reached Europe, where it was treated as a declaration of independence. Chapter 4 examines the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and Chapter 5 focuses on the broadsides printed by John Dunlap and the reception of the news in and around Philadelphia. Chapters 6 and 7 contrast the celebration of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Army in Manhattan with the disdainful reaction by the British forces assembling on Staten Island. Vice-Admiral Richard Howe, one of the King’s Commissioners for Restoring Peace, issued his own declaration which influenced the Congress’ decision to create a parchment copy of the Declaration for the delegates to sign. Chapter 8 focuses on Massachusetts, where the Declaration arrived in the middle of a window for legal smallpox inoculation in Boston and a treaty negotiation with Mi’kmaq and Maliseet representatives across the river in Watertown. Chapter 9 highlights the people who refused to read the Declaration of Independence publicly, including ministers and county sheriffs. Chapter 10 examines copies of the Declaration that were intercepted by British officials. Chapter 11 reveals how London printers manipulated the Declaration by self-censoring and excerpting the text and printing it alongside other pieces of news. Chapter 12 shows that European newspapers copied the London newspapers, to the dismay of Silas Deane, the Continental Congress’ agent in Paris. The Conclusion returns to the Continental Congress in January 1777, when they ordered a broadside of the Declaration with the names of the fifty-five men who had signed the parchment copy by that time. These broadsides marked the end of the period of time when the Declaration of Independence was news.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-387c-bs88
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Sneff, Emily Jane, "When The Declaration Of Independence Was News" (2023). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1709301457.
https://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-387c-bs88
