At the outbreak of fighting in April 1775, few colonists wanted complete independence from Great Britain. Those who did were thought to be radical. By the middle of the following year, however, sentiments had shifted and many more colonists now favored independence. Then, in August 1775, a royal proclamation from Great Britain declared that the King's American subjects were "engaged in open and avowed rebellion." Later that year, Parliament passed the American Prohibitory Act, which made all American vessels and cargoes forfeit to the Crown. And in May 1776, the Congress learned that the King had negotiated treaties with German states to hire mercenaries to fight in America. The weight of these actions combined to convince many Americans that the mother country was treating the colonies as a foreign entity. Thomas Paine's bestselling pamphlet "Common Sense," published in early 1776, fueled the growing hostility of the colonists against Britain and helped spread American revolutionary sentiments. In June 7, 1776, the Continental Congress met at the Pennsylvania State House (later called Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. The Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies' independence. Amid heated debate, Congress postponed the vote on Lee's resolution, but appointed a five-man committee that included Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York. They were charged to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain. American Independence Birthday – July 4th Years later, reflecting on those times, Thomas Jefferson wrote, in 1823, that the other members of...
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